Cluster Cosmology

h1. Paper pool

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h2. The extended ROSAT-ESO Flux Limited X-ray Galaxy Cluster Survey (REFLEX II) III. Construction of the first flux-limited supercluster sample

Gayoung Chon, Hans Boehringer, Nina Nowak

(Submitted on 7 Dec 2012)

We present the first supercluster catalogue constructed with the extended ROSAT-ESO Flux Limited X-ray Galaxy Cluster survey (REFLEX II) data, which comprises 919 X-ray selected galaxy clusters. Based on this cluster catalogue we construct a supercluster catalogue using a friends-of-friends algorithm with a linking length depending on the local cluster density. The resulting catalogue comprises 164 superclusters at redshift z<=0.4. We study the properties of different catalogues such as the distributions of the redshift, extent and multiplicity by varying the choice of parameters. In addition to the main catalogue we compile a large volume-limited cluster sample to investigate the statistics of the superclusters. We also compare the X-ray luminosity function for the clusters in superclusters with that for the field clusters with the flux- and volume-limited catalogues. The results mildly support the theoretical suggestion of a top-heavy X-ray luminosity function of galaxy clusters in regions of high cluster density.

http://arxiv.org/abs/1212.1597

Votes : *0*

h2. An HST/WFC3-UVIS View of the Starburst in the Cool Core of the Phoenix Cluster

Michael McDonald, Bradford Benson, Sylvain Veilleux, Marshall W. Bautz, Christian L. Reichardt

(Submitted on 29 Nov 2012)

We present the results of Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3 observations of the core of the Phoenix Cluster (SPT-CLJ2344-4243) in five broadband filters spanning rest-frame 1000-5500A. These observations reveal complex, filamentary blue emission, extending for >40 kpc from the brightest cluster galaxy. We observe an underlying, diffuse population of old stars, following an r^1/4 distribution, confirming that this system is somewhat relaxed. The spectral energy distribution in the inner part of the galaxy, as well as along the extended filaments, is a smooth continuum and is consistent with that of a star-forming galaxy, suggesting that the extended, filamentary emission is not due to a large-scale highly-ionized outflow from the central AGN, but rather a massive population of young stars. We estimate an extinction-corrected star formation rate of 798 +/- 42 Msun/yr, consistent with our earlier work based on low spatial resolution ultraviolet, optical, and infrared imaging. We argue that such a high star formation rate is not the result of a merger, as it would require >10 mergers with gas-rich galaxies and there is no evidence for such multiple merger events. Instead, we propose that the high X-ray cooling rate of ~2850 Msun/yr is the origin of the cold gas reservoir. The combination of such a high cooling rate and the relatively weak radio source in the cluster core suggests that feedback has been unable to halt runaway cooling in this system, leading to this tremendous burst of star formation.

Votes: *0*

h2. Reconstructing three-dimensional parameters of galaxy clusters via multifrequency SZ observations

Andrea Morandi, Daisuke Nagai, Wei Cui

(Submitted on 29 Nov 2012)

The Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) effect is a promising tool to study physical properties of the hot X-ray emitting intracluster medium (ICM) in galaxy clusters. To date, most SZ observations have been interpreted in combination with X-ray follow-up measurements in order to determine the ICM temperature and estimate the cluster mass. Future high-resolution, multifrequency SZ observations promise to enable detailed studies of the ICM structures, by measuring the ICM temperature through the temperature-dependent relativistic corrections. In this work we develop a non-parametric method to derive three-dimensional physical quantities, including temperature, pressure, total mass, and peculiar velocities, of galaxy clusters from SZ observations alone. We test the performance of this method using hydrodynamical simulations of galaxy clusters, in order to assess systematic uncertainties in the reconstructed physical parameters. In particular, we analyze mock Cerro Chajnantor Atacama Telescope (CCAT) SZ observations, taking into account various sources of systematic uncertainties associated with instrumental effects and astrophysical foregrounds. We show that our method enables accurate reconstruction of the three-dimensional ICM profiles, while retaining full information about the gas distribution. We discuss the application of this technique for ongoing and future multifrequency SZ observations.

http://arxiv.org/abs/1211.7096

Votes: *0*

h2. Quenching star formation in cluster galaxies

Dan S. Taranu, Michael J. Hudson, Michael L. Balogh, Russell J. Smith, Chris Power, Brad Krane

(Submitted on 14 Nov 2012)

In order to understand the processes that quench star formation within rich clusters, we construct a library of subhalo orbits drawn from lambdaCDM cosmological N-body simulations of four rich clusters. The orbits are combined with models of star formation followed by quenching in the cluster environment to predict colours and spectroscopic line indices of satellite galaxies. Simple models with only halo mass-dependent quenching and without environmental (i.e. cluster-dependent) quenching fail to reproduce the observed cluster-centric colour and absorption linestrength gradients. Models in which star formation is instantly quenched at the virial radius also fail to match the observations. Better matches to the data are achieved by more complicated bulge-disc models in which the bulge stellar populations depend only on the galaxy subhalo mass while the disc quenching depends on the cluster environment. In the most successful models quenching begins at pericentre, operating on an exponential timescale of 2 -- 3 Gyr, with the shorter timescale being a better match to disc colours as a function of cluster-centric radius and the longer being a better fit to the radial dependence of stellar absorption line indices. The models thus imply that the environments of rich clusters must impact star formation rates of infalling galaxies on relatively long timescales - several times longer than a typical halo spends within the virial radius of a cluster. This scenario favours gentler quenching mechanisms such as slow "strangulation" over more rapid ram-pressure stripping.

http://arxiv.org/abs/1211.3411

Votes: *0*

h2. Sunyaev-Zel'dovich-Measured Pressure Profiles from the Bolocam X-ray/SZ Galaxy Cluster Sample

Jack Sayers, Nicole G. Czakon, Adam Mantz, Sunil R. Golwala, Silvia Ameglio, Tom P. Downes, Patrick M. Koch, Kai-Yang Lin, Ben J. Maughan, Sandor M. Molnar, Leonidas Moustakas, Tony Mroczkowski, Elena Pierpaoli, Jennifer A. Shitanishi, Seth Siegel, Keiichi Umetsu, Nina Van der Pyl

(Submitted on 7 Nov 2012)

We describe Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect measurements and analysis of the intracluster medium (ICM) pressure profiles of a set of 45 massive galaxy clusters imaged using Bolocam at the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory. We have used masses determined from Chandra X-ray observations to scale each cluster's profile by the overdensity radius R500 and the mass-and-redshift-dependent normalization factor P500. We deproject the average pressure profile of our sample into 13 logarithmically spaced radial bins between 0.07R500 and 3.5R500. We find that a generalized Navarro, Frenk, and White (gNFW) profile describes our data with sufficient goodness-of-fit and best-fit parameters (C500, alpha, beta, gamma, P0 = 1.18, 0.86, 3.67, 0.67, 4.29). We also use the X-ray data to define cool-core and disturbed subsamples of clusters, and we constrain the average pressure profiles of each of these subsamples. We find that given the precision of our data the average pressure profiles of disturbed and cool-core clusters are consistent with one another at R>~0.15R500, with cool-core systems showing indications of higher pressure at R<~0.15R500. In addition, for the first time, we place simultaneous constraints on the mass scaling of cluster pressure profiles, their ensemble mean profile, and their radius-dependent intrinsic scatter between 0.1R500 and 2.0R500. The scatter among profiles is minimized at radii between ~0.2R500 and ~0.5R500, with a value of ~20%. The best-fit mass scaling has a power-law slope of 0.49, which is shallower than the nominal prediction of 2/3 from self-similar hydrostatic equilibrium models. These results for the intrinsic scatter and mass scaling are largely consistent with previous analyses, most of which have relied heavily on X-ray derived pressures of clusters at significantly lower masses and redshifts compared to our sample.

http://arxiv.org/abs/1211.1632

Votes: *0*

h2. The Sloan Bright Arcs Survey: Ten Strong Gravitational Lensing Clusters and Evidence of Overconcentration

Matthew P. Wiesner, Huan Lin, Sahar S. Allam, James Annis, Elizabeth J. Buckley-Geer, H. Thomas Diehl, Donna Kubik, Jeffrey M. Kubo, Douglas Tucker

(Submitted on 6 Nov 2012)

We describe ten strong lensing galaxy clusters of redshift 0.26-0.56 that were found in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We present measurements of richness, mass and velocity dispersion for the clusters. We find that in order to use the mass-richness relation from Johnston et al. (2007), which was established at mean redshift of 0.25, it is necessary to scale measured richness values up by 1.47. We also present measurements of Einstein radius, mass and velocity dispersion for the lensing systems. The Einstein radii are all relatively small, between 5.4-13 arcseconds. Finally we consider if there is evidence that our clusters are more concentrated than standard cosmology would predict. We find that six of our clusters do not show evidence of overconcentration, while four of our clusters do. We note a correlation between overconcentration and mass, as the four clusters showing evidence of overconcentration are all lower-mass clusters.

http://arxiv.org/abs/1211.1421

Votes: *0*

h2. A low-scatter survey-based mass proxy for clusters of galaxies

S. Andreon (INAF-OABrera)

(Submitted on 5 Nov 2012)

Estimates of cosmological parameters using galaxy clusters have the scatter in the observable at a given mass as a fundamental parameter. This work computes the amplitude of the scatter for a newly introduced mass proxy, the product of the cluster total luminosity times the mass-to-light ratio, usually referred as stellar mass. The analysis of 12 galaxy clusters with excellent total masses shows a tight correlation between the stellar mass, or stellar fraction, and total mass within r500 with negligible intrinsic scatter: the 90% upper limit is 0.06 dex, the posterior mean is 0.027 dex. This scatter is similar to the one of best-determined mass proxies, such as Yx, i.e. the product of X-ray temperature and gas mass. The size of the cluster sample used to determine the intrinsic scatter is small, as in previous works proposing low-scatter proxies because very accurate masses are needed to infer very small values of intrinsic scatter. Three-quarters of the studied clusters have lgM <~14 Msol, which is advantageous from a cosmological perspective because these clusters are far more abundant than more massive clusters. At the difference of other mass proxies such as Yx, stellar mass can be determined with survey data up to at least z=0.9 using upcoming optical near-infrared surveys, such as DES and Euclid, or even with currently available surveys, covering however smaller solid angles. On the other end, the uncertainty about the predicted mass of a single cluster is large, 0.21 to 0.32 dex, depending on cluster richness. This is largely because the proxy itself has ~0.10 dex errors for clusters of lgM<~ 14 Msol mass.

http://arxiv.org/abs/1211.0790

Votes: *1*

h2. Clusters of galaxies and variation of the fine structure constant

S. Galli

(Submitted on 5 Dec 2012)

We propose a new method to probe for variations in the fine structure constant alpha using clusters of galaxies, opening up a window on a new redshift range for such constraints. Hot clusters shine in the X-ray mainly due to bremsstrahlung, while they leave an imprint on the CMB frequency spectrum through the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect. These two physical processes can be characterized by the integrated Comptonization parameter Y_SZ DA^2 and its X-ray counterpart, the Y_X parameter. The ratio of these two quantities is expected to be constant from numerical simulations and current observations. We show that this fact can be exploited to constrain alpha, as the ratio of the two parameters depends on the fine structure constant as alpha^{3.5}. We determine current constraints from a combination of Planck SZ and XMM-Newton data, testing different models of variation of alpha. When fitting for a constant value of alpha, we find that current constraints are at the 1% level, comparable with current CMB constraints. We discuss strategies for further improving these constraints by almost an order of magnitude.

http://arxiv.org/abs/1212.1075

Votes: *0*

h2. CALCLENS: Weak Lensing Simulations for Large-area Sky Surveys and Second-order Effects in Cosmic Shear Power Spectra

Matthew R. Becker (UChicago/KICP)

(Submitted on 10 Oct 2012 (v1), last revised 12 Oct 2012 (this version, v2))

I present a new algorithm, CALCLENS, for efficiently computing weak gravitational lensing shear signals from large N-body light cone simulations over a curved sky. This new algorithm properly accounts for the sky curvature and boundary conditions, is able to produce redshift-dependent shear signals including corrections to the Born approximation by using multiple-plane ray tracing, and properly computes the lensed images of source galaxies in the light cone. The key feature of this algorithm is a new, computationally efficient Poisson solver for the sphere that combines spherical harmonic transform and multgrid methods. As a result, large areas of sky (~10, 000 square degrees) can be ray traced efficiently at high-resolution using only a few hundred cores on widely available machines. Using this new algorithm and curved-sky calculations that only use a slower but more accurate spherical harmonic transform Poisson solver, I study the shear B-mode and rotation mode power spectra. Employing full-sky E/B-mode decompositions, I confirm that the shear B-mode and rotation mode power spectra are equal at high accuracy (~1%), as expected from perturbation theory up to second order. Coupled with realistic galaxy populations placed in large N-body light cone simulations, this new algorithm is ideally suited for the construction of synthetic weak lensing shear catalogs to be used to test for systematic effects in data analysis procedures for upcoming large-area sky surveys. The implementation presented in this work, written in C and employing widely available software libraries to maintain portability, is publicly available at this http URL

http://arxiv.org/abs/1210.3069

Votes: *1*

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