We report the results of hard X-ray observations of Abell 496 ( A496 ) , a nearby relaxed cluster , using the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer ( RXTE ) .
The 3-20 keV spectrum of this cluster is well-modeled by a thermal component of kT \sim 4.1 keV plus a cooling flow with mass accretion rate of \dot { M } \sim 285 { M _ { \odot } yr ^ { -1 } } .
The spectrum is equally well-modeled by a multi-temperature plasma component with a Gaussian temperature distribution of mean temperature 3.8 keV and \sigma _ { kT } \sim 0.9 keV .
The metallicity is found to be approximately 1/3 solar ; however , the Ni/Fe ratio is about 3.6 .
No significant nonthermal emission at hard X-rays was detected for this cluster .
We discuss the implications of the models presented here and compare them with the temperature profiles derived for this cluster using the Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics ( ASCA ) .
Our results are inconsistent with declining temperature profiles .