An efficient method to identify galaxy clusters by using SuperCOSMOS, 2MASS and WISE data

Abstract

The survey data of Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) provide an opportunity for the identification of galaxy clusters. We present an efficient method for detecting galaxy clusters by combining the WISE data with SuperCOSMOS and 2MASS data. After performing star-galaxy separation, we calculate the number of companion galaxies around the galaxies with photometric redshifts previously estimated by the SuperCOSMOS, 2MASS and WISE data. A scaled richness is then defined to identify clusters. From a sky area of 275 deg^2 coincident with Sloan Digital Sky Survey Stripe 82 region, we identify 302 clusters in the redshift range of 0.1<z<0.35, 247 (82%) of which are previously known SDSS clusters. The results indicate that our method is efficient for identifying galaxy clusters by using the all sky data of the SuperCOSMOS, 2MASS and WISE.