Correlation between baryon mass and intergalactic gas temperature in nearby galaxy clusters

We measured the correlation between baryon mass and intracluster gas temperature in nearby galaxy clusters selected from the ROSAT All-Sky Survey. The mass of the intracluster gas was determined directly from an analysis of X-ray images. A correlation was found between the gas mass and the mass of the cluster stellar matter, which was used to determine the total baryon mass (i.e., gas + stars). The mass was measured within the radii corresponding to overdensities of 324 and 500 relative to the mean baryon density inferred from the theory of primordial nucleosynthesis. The measured correlation between baryon mass and temperature is close to that predicted by a self-similar theory of cluster formation: M ∝ T ^3/2.     

Testing X-ray measurements of galaxy cluster gas mass fraction using the cosmic distance-duality relation

We propose a consistency test for some recent X-ray gas mass fraction(fgas) measurements in galaxy clusters, using the cosmic distance-duality relation, ηtheory = DL(1 + z) 2/DA, with luminosity distance(DL) data from the Union2 compilation of type Ia supernovae. We set ηtheory ≡1, instead of assigning any redshift parameterizations to it, and constrain the cosmological information preferred by fgasdata along with supernova observations. We adopt a new binning method in the reduction of the Union2 data, in order to minimize the statistical errors. Four data sets of X-ray gas mass fraction, which are reported by Allen et al.(two samples), LaRoque et al. and Ettori et al., are analyzed in detail in the context of two theoretical models of fgas. The results from the analysis of Allen et al.’s samples demonstrate the feasibility of our method. It is found that the preferred cosmology by LaRoque et al.’s sample is consistent with its reference cosmology within the 1σ confidence level. However, for Ettori et al.’s fgas sample, the inconsistency can reach more than a 3σ confidence level and this dataset shows special preference to an Λ = 0 cosmology.     

The galaxy luminosity function in clusters and the field

We present the results from a CCD survey of the B -band luminosity function of nine clusters of galaxies, and compare them to published photographic luminosity functions of nearby poor clusters like Virgo and Fornax, and also to the field luminosity function. We derive a composite luminosity function by taking the weighted mean of all the individual cluster luminosity functions; this composite luminosity function is steep at bright and faint magnitudes and is shallow in-between.
All clusters have luminosity functions consistent with this single composite function. This is true both for rich clusters like Coma and for poor clusters like Virgo.
This same composite function is also individually consistent with the deep field luminosity functions found by Cowie et al. and Ellis et al., and also with the faint end of the Las Campanas Redshift Survey R -band luminosity function, shifted by 1.5 mag. A comparison with the Loveday et al. field luminosity function, which is well determined at the bright end, shows that the composite function, which fits the field data well fainter than M _B=−19, drops too steeply between M _B=−19 and −22 to fit the field data there.     

The baryon mass distribution for nearby galaxy clusters

Based on ROSAT X-ray data, we constructed the baryon mass function for a statistically complete sample of galaxy clusters at redshifts of 0.01–0.1. Since the derived function is similar to the total mass function for clusters, it can be used to determine cosmological parameters.     

Determination of the linear mass power spectrum from the mass function of galaxy clusters

We develop a new method to determine the linear mass power spectrum using the mass function of galaxy clusters. We obtain the rms mass fluctuation  σ( M )  using the expression for the mass function in the Press & Schechter, Sheth, Mo & Tormen and Jenkins et al. formalisms. We apply different techniques to recover the adimensional power spectrum  Δ²( k )  from  σ( M )  namely the   k _eff  approximation, the singular value decomposition and the linear regularization method. The application of these techniques to the τCDM and ΛCDM GIF simulations shows a high efficiency in recovering the theoretical power spectrum over a wide range of scales. We compare our results with those derived from the power spectrum of the spatial distribution of the same sample of clusters in the simulations obtained by application of the classical Feldman, Kaiser & Peacock (FKP) method. We find that the mass function based method presented here can provide a very accurate estimate of the linear power spectrum, particularly for low values of k . This estimate is comparable to, or even better behaved than, the FKP solution.
The principal advantage of our method is that it allows the determination of the linear mass power spectrum using the joint information of objects of a wide range of masses without dealing with specific assumptions on the bias relative to the underlying mass distribution.     

Cosmological constraints from the X-ray gas mass fraction in relaxed lensing clusters observed with Chandra

We present precise measurements of the X-ray gas mass fraction for a sample of luminous, relatively relaxed clusters of galaxies observed with the Chandra observatory, for which independent confirmation of the mass results is available from gravitational lensing studies. Parametrizing the total (luminous plus dark matter) mass profiles using the model of Navarro, Frenk & White, we show that the X-ray gas mass fractions in the clusters asymptote towards an approximately constant value at a radius r ₂₅₀₀, where the mean interior density is 2500 times the critical density of the Universe at the redshifts of the clusters. Combining the Chandra results on the X-ray gas mass fraction and its apparent redshift dependence with recent measurements of the mean baryonic matter density in the Universe and the Hubble constant determined from the Hubble Key Project, we obtain a tight constraint on the mean total matter density of the Universe,     , and measure a positive cosmological constant,     . Our results are in good agreement with recent, independent findings based on analyses of anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background radiation, the properties of distant supernovae, and the large-scale distribution of galaxies.     

The observed concentration–mass relation for galaxy clusters

The properties of clusters of galaxies offer key insights into the assembly process of structure in the universe. Numerical simulations of cosmic structure formation in a hierarchical, dark matter dominated universe suggest that galaxy cluster concentrations, which are a measure of a halo's central density, decrease gradually with virial mass. However, cluster observations have yet to confirm this correlation. The slopes of the run of measured concentrations with virial mass are often either steeper or flatter than that predicted by simulations. In this work, we present the most complete sample of observed cluster concentrations and masses yet assembled, including new measurements for 10 strong-lensing clusters, thereby more than doubling the existing number of strong-lensing concentration estimates. We fit a power law to the observed concentrations as a function of virial mass, and find that the slope is consistent with the slopes found in simulations, though our normalization factor is higher. Observed lensing concentrations appear to be systematically larger than X-ray concentrations, a more pronounced effect than that found in simulations. We also find that at a fixed mass, the bulk of observed cluster concentrations are distributed lognormally, with the exception of a few anomalously high concentration clusters. We examine the physical processes likely responsible for the discrepancy between lensing and X-ray concentrations, and for the anomalously high concentrations in particular. The forthcoming Millennium simulation results will offer the most comprehensive comparison set to our findings of an observed concentration–mass power law relation.     

Biases in hydrostatic mass profiles introduced by hot gas substructures:Chandra study of four galaxy clusters

By analyzing the azimuthal variations of total gravitating mass profiles in the central 300 h-1 71 kpc regions of four galaxy clusters with Chandra data,we find that the azimuthally-averaged mass profiles may have been systematically underestimated by 16 +9-8 % at 1σ significance in the 50-100 h-1 71 kpc regions,probably due to the prevailing existence of 2-D hot gas substructures in 100-300 h-1 71 kpc.The mass biases become negligible (-7 +11-9 %) at 150 h-1 71 kpc.We confirm the results that the gas temperature maps can be used to probe the departure from hydrostatic equilibrium and help quantify the systematic biases in X-ray mass measurements in the central regions of clusters.     

The entropy and energy of intergalactic gas in galaxy clusters

Studies of the X-ray surface brightness profiles of clusters, coupled with theoretical considerations, suggest that the breaking of self-similarity in the hot gas results from an 'entropy floor', established by some heating process, which affects the structure of the intracluster gas strongly in lower-mass systems. By fitting analytical models for the radial variation in gas density and temperature to X-ray spectral images from the ROSAT PSPC and ASCA GIS, we have derived gas entropy profiles for 20 galaxy clusters and groups. We show that, when these profiles are scaled such that they should lie on top of one another in the case of self-similarity, the lowest-mass systems have higher-scaled entropy profiles than more massive systems. This appears to be due to a baseline entropy of depending on the extent to which shocks have been suppressed in low-mass systems. The extra entropy may be present in all systems, but is detectable only in poor clusters, where it is significant compared with the entropy generated by gravitational collapse. This excess entropy appears to be distributed uniformly with radius outside the central cooling regions.
We determine the energy associated with this entropy floor, by studying the net reduction in binding energy of the gas in low-mass systems, and find that it corresponds to a pre-heating temperature of 0.3 keV. Since the relationship between entropy and energy injection depends upon gas density, we are able to combine the excesses of 70140 keV cm² and 0.3 keV to derive the typical electron density of the gas into which the energy was injected. The resulting value of implies that the heating must have happened prior to cluster collapse but after a redshift z 710. The energy requirement is well matched to the energy from supernova explosions responsible for the metals which now pollute the intracluster gas.     

Impact of stochastic gas motions on galaxy cluster abundance profiles

The impact of stochastic gas motions on the metal distribution in cluster cores is evaluated. Peaked abundance profiles are a characteristic feature of clusters with cool cores, and abundance peaks are probably associated with the brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs), which dwell in cluster cores. However, the width of the abundance peaks is significantly broader than the BCG light distribution, suggesting that some gas motions are transporting metals originating from within the BCG. Assuming that this process can be treated as diffusive, and using the brightest X-ray cluster A426 (Perseus) as an example, we estimate that a diffusion coefficient of the order of  2 × 10²⁹ cm² s⁻¹  is needed to explain the width of the observed abundance profiles. Much lower (higher) diffusion coefficients would result in too peaked (too shallow) profiles. Such diffusion could be produced by stochastic gas motions, and our analysis provides constraints on the product of their characteristic velocity and their spatial coherence scale. We speculate that the activity of the supermassive black hole of the BCG is driving the stochastic gas motions in cluster cores. When combined with the assumption that the dissipation of the same motions is a key gas heating mechanism, one can estimate both the velocity and the spatial scale of such diffusive processes.     

Detecting mass substructure in galaxy clusters: an aperture mass statistic for gravitational flexion

Gravitational flexion has been introduced as a technique by which one can map out and study substructure in clusters of galaxies. Previous analyses involving flexion have measured the individual galaxy–galaxy flexion signal, or used either parametric techniques or a Kaiser, Squires and Broadhurst (KSB)-type inversion to reconstruct the mass distribution in Abell 1689. In this paper, we present an aperture mass statistic for flexion, and apply it to the lensed images of background galaxies obtained by ray-tracing simulations through a simple analytic mass distribution and through a galaxy cluster from the Millennium Simulation. We show that this method is effective at detecting and accurately tracing structure within clusters of galaxies on subarcminute scales with high signal to noise even using a moderate background source number density and image resolution. In addition, the method provides much more information about both the overall shape and the small-scale structure of a cluster of galaxies than can be achieved through a weak lensing mass reconstruction using gravitational shear data. Lastly, we discuss how the zero-points of the aperture mass might be used to infer the masses of structures identified using this method.     

Resonant scattering in galaxy clusters for anisotropic gas motions on various spatial scales

The determination of the characteristic amplitudes and directions of hot gas motions in galaxy clusters from observations of the brightest resonance lines is discussed. Gas motions affect (i) the spectral line shape through the Doppler effect and (ii) the distortions of the radial surface brightness profiles in lines during resonant scattering. Radiative transfer calculations have been performed by the Monte Carlo method in the FeXXV resonance line at 6.7 keV for the Perseus cluster A426. As a result, (a) radial motions have been shown to reduce the scattering efficiency much more dramatically than purely tangential motions; (b) large-scale gas motions have been shown to affect weakly the scattering efficiency; and (c) the uncertainty in measuring the characteristics of gas motions using resonant scattering has been estimated from existing and future observations of clusters.     

Stellar polarization and the structure of the magnetic field of our galaxy

The stellar polarization data have been examined using a new catalogue containing accurate stellar distances. On the assumption of a magnetic alignment hypothesis, correlations on the larger distance scale indicate the existence of a dominant regular magnetic field, although its characteristics are difficult to determine. Within 500 pc its direction is towardsl45° and beyond this towardsl60°, though it is clear that such a longitudinal model is too simple. There is also some evidence for an inclination of this field to the galactic plane. The distribution of the polarization vectors away from the galactic plane has been examined and it is proposed that the two largest loop structures, previously identified as Supernova remnants, are linked by the regular field. Incremental polarization maps have been produced but they show little correlation with the spiral structure. The polarization appears to be saturated at about 1 kpc from the Sun, which is explained as the result of an observational selection effect. On the smaller distance scales an autocorrelation analysis in different directions has revealed no obvious coherence in the irregular component on scales greater than 50 pc.