Galaxy Cluster Catalog Research Articles

AMICO galaxy clusters in KiDS-DR3: measurement of the halo bias and power spectrum normalization from a stacked weak lensing analysis

ABSTRACT Galaxy clusters are biased tracers of the underlying matter density field. At very large radii beyond about 10 Mpc h−1, the shear profile shows evidence of a second-halo term. This is related to the correlated matter distribution around galaxy clusters and proportional to the so-called halo bias. We present an observational analysis of the halo bias–mass relation based on the AMICO galaxy cluster catalogue, comprising around 7000 candidates detected in the third release of the KiDS survey. We split the cluster sample into 14 redshift-richness bins and derive the halo bias and the virial mass in each bin by means of a stacked weak lensing analysis. The observed halo bias–mass relation and the theoretical predictions based on the Lambda cold dark matter standard cosmological model show an agreement within 2σ. The mean measurements of bias and mass over the full catalogue give $M_{200c} = (4.9 \pm 0.3) \times 10^{13}\, {\rm M}_{\odot }/{\it h}$ and $b_h \sigma _8^2 = 1.2 \pm 0.1$. With the additional prior of a bias–mass relation from numerical simulations, we constrain the normalization of the power spectrum with a fixed matter density Ωm = 0.3, finding σ8 = 0.63 ± 0.10.

Mass Estimation of Planck Galaxy Clusters using Deep Learning

Galaxy cluster masses can be inferred indirectly using measurements from X-ray band, Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) effect signal or optical observations. Unfortunately, all of them are affected by some bias. Alternatively, we provide an independent estimation of the cluster masses from the Planck PSZ2 catalog of galaxy clusters using a machine-learning method. We train a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) model with the mock SZ observations from The Three Hundred (the300) hydrodynamic simulations to infer the cluster masses from the real maps of the Planck clusters. The advantage of the CNN is that no assumption on a priory symmetry in the cluster’s gas distribution or no additional hypothesis about the cluster physical state are made. We compare the cluster masses from the CNN model with those derived by Planck and conclude that the presence of a mass bias is compatible with the simulation results.

Cosmology with the SZ spectrum: Measuring the Universe’s temperature with galaxy clusters

The hot gas in clusters of galaxies creates a distinctive spectral distortion in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) via the Sunyaev-Zel’dovich (SZ) effect. The spectral signature of the SZ can be used to measure the CMB temperature at cluster redshift (TCMB(z)) and to constrain the monopole of the y-type spectral distortion of the CMB spectrum. In this work, we start showing the measurements of TCMB(z) for a sample extracted from the Second Catalog of galaxy clusters produced by Planck (PSZ2) and containing 75 clusters selected from CHEX-MATE. Then we show the forecasts for future CMB experiments about the constraints on the monopole of the y-type spectral distortion of the CMB spectrum via the spectrum of the SZ effect.

Euclid : Effects of sample covariance on the number counts of galaxy clusters

Aims. We investigate the contribution of shot-noise and sample variance to uncertainties in the cosmological parameter constraints inferred from cluster number counts, in the context of the Euclid survey. Methods. By analysing 1000 Euclid-like light cones, produced with the PINOCCHIO approximate method, we validated the analytical model of Hu & Kravtsov (2003, ApJ, 584, 702) for the covariance matrix, which takes into account both sources of statistical error. Then, we used such a covariance to define the likelihood function that is better equipped to extract cosmological information from cluster number counts at the level of precision that will be reached by the future Euclid photometric catalogs of galaxy clusters. We also studied the impact of the cosmology dependence of the covariance matrix on the parameter constraints. Results. The analytical covariance matrix reproduces the variance measured from simulations within the 10 percent; such a difference has no sizeable effect on the error of cosmological parameter constraints at this level of statistics. Also, we find that the Gaussian likelihood with full covariance is the only model that provides an unbiased inference of cosmological parameters without underestimating the errors, and that the cosmology-dependence of the covariance must be taken into account.

Catalog of One-side Head–Tail Galaxies in the FIRST Survey

Abstract One-side head–tail (OHT) galaxies are radio galaxies with a peculiar shape. They usually appear in galaxy clusters, but they have never been cataloged systematically. We design an automatic procedure to search for them in the Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters source catalog and compile a sample with 115 HT candidates. After cross-checking with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey photometric data and catalogs of galaxy clusters, we find that 69 of them are possible OHT galaxies. Most of them are close to the center of galaxy clusters. The lengths of their tails do not correlate with the projection distance to the center of the nearest galaxy clusters, but show weak anticorrelation with the cluster richness, and are inversely proportional to the radial velocity differences between clusters and host galaxies. Our catalog provides a unique sample to study this special type of radio galaxies.

Spectroscopic quantification of projection effects in the SDSS redMaPPer galaxy cluster catalogue

ABSTRACT Projection effects, whereby galaxies along the line of sight to a galaxy cluster are mistakenly associated with the cluster halo, present a significant challenge for optical cluster cosmology. We use statistically representative spectral coverage of luminous galaxies to investigate how projection effects impact the low-redshift limit of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) redMaPPer galaxy cluster catalogue. Spectroscopic redshifts enable us to differentiate true cluster members from false positives and determine the fraction of candidate cluster members viewed in projection. Our main results can be summarized as follows: first, we show that a simple double-Gaussian model can be used to describe the distribution of line-of-sight velocities in the redMaPPer sample; secondly, the incidence of projection effects is substantial, accounting for ∼16 per cent of the weighted richness for the lowest richness objects; thirdly, projection effects are a strong function of richness, with the contribution in the highest richness bin being several times smaller than for low-richness objects; fourthly, our measurement has a similar amplitude to state-of-the-art models, but finds a steeper dependence of projection effects on richness than these models; and fifthly, the slope of the observed velocity dispersion–richness relation, corrected for projection effects, implies an approximately linear relationship between the true, three-dimensional halo mass and three-dimensional richness. Our results provide a robust, empirical description of the impact of projection effects on the SDSS redMaPPer cluster sample and exemplify the synergies between optical imaging and spectroscopic data for studies of galaxy cluster astrophysics and cosmology.

Impact of the calibration of the halo mass function on galaxy cluster number count cosmology

The halo mass function (HMF) is a critical element in cosmological analyses of galaxy cluster catalogs. We quantify the impact of uncertainties in HMF parameters on cosmological constraints from cluster catalogs similar to those from Planck, those expected from the Euclid, Roman, and Rubin surveys, and from a hypothetical larger future survey. We analyze simulated catalogs in each case, gradually loosening priors on HMF parameters to evaluate the degradation in cosmological constraints. While current uncertainties on HMF parameters do not substantially impact Planck-like surveys, we find that they can significantly degrade the cosmological constraints for a Euclid-like survey. Consequently, the current precision on the HMF is not sufficient for Euclid, Roman, Rubin or possible larger surveys. Future experiments will have to properly account for uncertainties in HMF parameters, and it will be necessary to improve the precision of HMF fits to avoid weakening constraints on cosmological parameters.

OUP accepted manuscript

We present a Markov chain Monte Carlo pipeline that can be used for robust and unbiased constraints of $f(R)$ gravity using galaxy cluster number counts. This pipeline makes use of a detailed modelling of the halo mass function in $f(R)$ gravity, which is based on the spherical collapse model and calibrated by simulations, and fully accounts for the effects of the fifth force on the dynamical mass, the halo concentration and the observable-mass scaling relations. Using a set of mock cluster catalogues observed through the thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect, we demonstrate that this pipeline, which constrains the present-day background scalar field $f_{R0}$, performs very well for both $\Lambda$CDM and $f(R)$ fiducial cosmologies. We find that using an incomplete treatment of the scaling relation, which could deviate from the usual power-law behaviour in $f(R)$ gravity, can lead to imprecise and biased constraints. We also find that various degeneracies between the modified gravity, cosmological and scaling relation parameters can significantly affect the constraints, and show how this can be rectified by using tighter priors and better knowledge of the cosmological and scaling relation parameters. Our pipeline can be easily extended to other modified gravity models, to test gravity on large scales using galaxy cluster catalogues from ongoing and upcoming surveys.

AMICO galaxy clusters in KiDS-DR3: galaxy population properties and their redshift dependence

ABSTRACT A catalogue of galaxy clusters was obtained in an area of 414 $\deg ^2$ up to a redshift z ∼ 0.8 from the Data Release 3 of the Kilo-Degree Survey (KiDS-DR3), using the Adaptive Matched Identifier of Clustered Objects (amico) algorithm. The catalogue and the calibration of the richness–mass relation were presented in two companion papers. Here, we describe the selection of the cluster central galaxy and the classification of blue and red cluster members, and analyse the main cluster properties, such as the red/blue fraction, cluster mass, brightness, and stellar mass of the central galaxy, and their dependence on redshift and cluster richness. We use the Illustris-TNG simulation, which represents the state-of-the-art cosmological simulation of galaxy formation, as a benchmark for the interpretation of the results. A good agreement with simulations is found at low redshifts (z ≤ 0.4), while at higher redshifts the simulations indicate a lower fraction of blue galaxies than what found in the KiDS-amico catalogue: we argue that this may be due to an underestimate of star-forming galaxies in the simulations. The selection of clusters with a larger magnitude difference between the two brightest central galaxies, which may indicate a more relaxed cluster dynamical status, improves the agreement between the observed and simulated cluster mass and stellar mass of the central galaxy. We also find that at a given cluster mass the stellar mass of blue central galaxies is lower than that of the red ones.

CODEX clusters

Context. Large area catalogs of galaxy clusters constructed from ROSAT All-Sky Survey provide the basis for our knowledge of the population of clusters thanks to long-term multiwavelength efforts to follow up observations of these clusters. Aims. The advent of large area photometric surveys superseding previous, in-depth all-sky data allows us to revisit the construction of X-ray cluster catalogs, extending the study to lower cluster masses and higher redshifts and providing modeling of the selection function. Methods. We performed a wavelet detection of X-ray sources and made extensive simulations of the detection of clusters in the RASS data. We assigned an optical richness to each of the 24 788 detected X-ray sources in the 10 382 square degrees of the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey area using red sequence cluster finder redMaPPer version 5.2 run on Sloan Digital Sky Survey photometry. We named this survey COnstrain Dark Energy with X-ray (CODEX) clusters. Results. We show that there is no obvious separation of sources on galaxy clusters and active galactic nuclei (AGN) based on the distribution of systems on their richness. This is a combination of an increasing number of galaxy groups and their selection via the identification of X-ray sources either by chance or by groups hosting an AGN. To clean the sample, we use a cut on the optical richness at the level corresponding to the 10% completeness of the survey and include it in the modeling of the cluster selection function. We present the X-ray catalog extending to a redshift of 0.6. Conclusions. The CODEX suvey is the first large area X-ray selected catalog of northern clusters reaching fluxes of 10−13 ergs s−1 cm−2. We provide modeling of the sample selection and discuss the redshift evolution of the high end of the X-ray luminosity function (XLF). Our results on z < 0.3 XLF agree with previous studies, while we provide new constraints on the 0.3 < z < 0.6 XLF. We find a lack of strong redshift evolution of the XLF, provide exact modeling of the effect of low number statistics and AGN contamination, and present the resulting constraints on the flat ΛCDM.

The Three Hundred project: the stellar and gas profiles

ABSTRACT Using the catalogues of galaxy clusters from The Three Hundred project, modelled with both hydrodynamic simulations (gadget-x and gadget-music), and semi-analytical models (SAMs), we study the scatter and self-similarity of the profiles and distributions of the baryonic components of the clusters: the stellar and gas mass, metallicity, the stellar age, gas temperature, and the (specific) star formation rate. Through comparisons with observational results, we find that the shape and the scatter of the gas density profiles matches well the observed trends including the reduced scatter at large radii which is a signature of self-similarity suggested in previous studies. One of our simulated sets, gadget-x, reproduces well the shape of the observed temperature profile, while gadget-music has a higher and flatter profile in the cluster centre and a lower and steeper profile at large radii. The gas metallicity profiles from both simulation sets, despite following the observed trend, have a relatively lower normalization. The cumulative stellar density profiles from SAMs are in better agreement with the observed result than both hydrodynamic simulations which show relatively higher profiles. The scatter in these physical profiles, especially in the cluster centre region, shows a dependence on the cluster dynamical state and on the cool-core/non-cool-core dichotomy. The stellar age, metallicity, and (s)SFR show very large scatter, which are then presented in 2D maps. We also do not find any clear radial dependence of these properties. However, the brightest central galaxies have distinguishable features compared to the properties of the satellite galaxies.

Bounds on WIMP dark matter from galaxy clusters at low redshift

Abstract In this work we study the cross-correlation between Fermi-LAT diffuse γ-ray maps and galaxy cluster catalogues in order to search for a diffuse dark matter signal. We employ an accurate estimation of the error covariance matrix and we select 4 galaxy cluster catalogues at low-redshift 0 < z < 0.2 with large-halo mass M500 > 1013M⊙ including infrared, optical and X-rays wavebands. We consider weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) dark matter with 100% branching ratios into τ+τ−, $b\bar{b}$, W+W− and μ+μ−. No evidence for a WIMP dark matter signal is identified, and we derive competitive bounds. The WIMP thermally averaged cross section is excluded at 95% C.L. for dark matter masses below 20 GeV and annihilation in the τ+τ− channel.

The SPTpol Extended Cluster Survey

We describe the observations and resultant galaxy cluster catalog from the 2770 deg$^2$ SPTpol Extended Cluster Survey (SPT-ECS). Clusters are identified via the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect, and confirmed with a combination of archival and targeted follow-up data, making particular use of data from the Dark Energy Survey (DES). With incomplete followup we have confirmed as clusters 244 of 266 candidates at a detection significance $\xi \ge 5$ and an additional 204 systems at $4<\xi<5$. The confirmed sample has a median mass of $M_{500c} \sim {4.4 \times 10^{14} M_\odot h_{70}^{-1}}$, a median redshift of $z=0.49$, and we have identified 44 strong gravitational lenses in the sample thus far. Radio data are used to characterize contamination to the SZ signal; the median contamination for confirmed clusters is predicted to be $\sim$1% of the SZ signal at the $\xi>4$ threshold, and $<4\%$ of clusters have a predicted contamination $>10\% $ of their measured SZ flux. We associate SZ-selected clusters, from both SPT-ECS and the SPT-SZ survey, with clusters from the DES redMaPPer sample, and find an offset distribution between the SZ center and central galaxy in general agreement with previous work, though with a larger fraction of clusters with significant offsets. Adopting a fixed Planck-like cosmology, we measure the optical richness-to-SZ-mass ($\lambda-M$) relation and find it to be 28% shallower than that from a weak-lensing analysis of the DES data---a difference significant at the 4 $\sigma$ level---with the relations intersecting at $\lambda=60$ . The SPT-ECS cluster sample will be particularly useful for studying the evolution of massive clusters and, in combination with DES lensing observations and the SPT-SZ cluster sample, will be an important component of future cosmological analyses.

A Catalog of Galaxy Clusters Identified from SCUSS, SDSS, and UNWISE

This paper presents the identification of galaxy clusters from the photometric redshift catalog based on three imaging surveys of SCUSS, Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and unWISE. By applying a fast clustering algorithm, we obtain a total of 19,610 clusters in the redshift range of 0.05 < z < 0.65 over a sky area of about 3700 deg2 in the south Galactic gap. Monte Carlo simulations show that the false detection rate is about 8.9%. The redshift uncertainty is estimated to be about 0.013. The mass and richness of detected clusters are derived through the calibration based on the measurements of X-ray emission and Sunyaev–Zel’dovich effect. The median mass is 1.2 × 1014 M⊙.

Shortcomings of Shapiro delay-based tests of the equivalence principle on cosmological scales

The "Shapiro delay" experienced by an astronomical messenger traveling through a gravitational field has been used to place constraints on possible deviations from the equivalence principle. The standard Shapiro delay used to obtain these constraints is not itself an observable in general relativity, but is rather obtained by comparing with a fiducial Euclidean distance. There is not a mapping between the constraints obtained in this manner and alternative theories that exhibit equivalence principle violations. However, even assuming that the comparison with the fiducial Euclidean distance is carried out in a way that is useful for some class of alternative theories, we show that the standard calculation of these constraints cannot be applied on cosmological scales, as is often done. Specifically, we find that the Shapiro delay computed in the standard way (taking the Newtonian potential to vanish at infinity) diverges as one includes many remote sources. We use an infinite homogeneous lattice model to illustrate this divergence, and also show how the divergence can be cured by using Fermi coordinates associated with an observer. With this correction, one finds that the Shapiro delay is no longer monotonic with the number of sources. Thus, one cannot compute a conservative lower bound on the Shapiro delay using a subset of the sources of the gravitational field without further assumptions and/or observational input. As an illustration, we compute the Shapiro delay by applying the Fermi coordinate expression to two catalogs of galaxy clusters, illustrating the dependence of the result on the completeness of the catalogue and the mass estimates.

Searching for gamma-ray emission from galaxy clusters at low redshift

ABSTRACT We report the identification of a positive cross-correlation signal between the unresolved gamma-ray emission, measured by the Fermi Large Area Telescope, and four different galaxy cluster catalogues. The selected catalogues peak at low-redshift and span different frequency bands, including infrared, optical, and X-rays. The signal-to-noise ratio of the detected cross-correlation amounts to 3.5 in the most significant case. We investigate and comment about its possible origin, in terms of compact gamma-ray emission from AGNs inside clusters or diffuse emission from the intracluster medium. The analysis has been performed by introducing an accurate estimation of the cross-correlation power-spectrum covariance matrix, built with mock realizations of the gamma and galaxy cluster maps. Different methods to produce the mock realizations starting from the data maps have been investigated and compared, identifying suitable techniques which can be generalized to other cross-correlation studies.

Detection of CMB-Cluster Lensing using Polarization Data from SPTpol.

We report the first detection of gravitational lensing due to galaxy clusters using only the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). The lensing signal is obtained using a new estimator that extracts the lensing dipole signature from stacked images formed by rotating the cluster-centered Stokes QU map cutouts along the direction of the locally measured background CMB polarization gradient. Using data from the SPTpol 500 deg^{2} survey at the locations of roughly 18 000 clusters with richness λ≥10 from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) Year-3 full galaxy cluster catalog, we detect lensing at 4.8σ. The mean stacked mass of the selected sample is found to be (1.43±0.40)×10^{14}M_{⊙} which is in good agreement with optical weak lensing based estimates using DES data and CMB-lensing based estimates using SPTpol temperature data. This measurement is a key first step for cluster cosmology with future low-noise CMB surveys, like CMB-S4, for which CMB polarization will be the primary channel for cluster lensing measurements.

ComPRASS: a Combined Planck-RASS catalogue of X-ray-SZ clusters

We present the first all-sky catalogue of galaxy clusters and cluster candidates obtained from joint X-ray-SZ detections using observations from the Planck satellite and the ROSAT all-sky survey (RASS). The catalogue contains 2323 objects and has been validated by careful cross-identification with previously known clusters. This validation shows that 1597 candidates correspond to already known clusters, 212 coincide with other cluster candidates still to be confirmed, and the remaining 514 are completely new detections. With respect to Planck catalogues, the ComPRASS catalogue is simultaneously more pure and more complete. Based on the validation results in the SPT and SDSS footprints, the expected purity of the catalogue is at least 84.5%, meaning that more than 365 clusters are expected to be found among the new or still-to-be-confirmed candidates with future validation efforts or specific follow-ups.

A new RASS galaxy cluster catalogue with low contamination extending to z ∼ 1 in the DES overlap region

ABSTRACT We present the MARD-Y3 catalogue of between 1086 and 2171 galaxy clusters (52 per cent and 65 per cent new) produced using multicomponent matched filter (MCMF) follow-up in 5000 deg2 of DES-Y3 optical data of the ∼20 000 overlapping ROSAT All-Sky Survey source catalogue (2RXS) X-ray sources. Optical counterparts are identified as peaks in galaxy richness as a function of redshift along the line of sight towards each 2RXS source within a search region informed by an X-ray prior. All peaks are assigned a probability fcont of being a random superposition. The clusters lie at 0.02 &amp;lt; z &amp;lt; 1.1 with more than 100 clusters at z &amp;gt; 0.5. Residual contamination is 2.6 per cent and 9.6 per cent for the cuts adopted here. For each cluster we present the optical centre, redshift, rest frame X-ray luminosity, M500 mass, coincidence with NWAY infrared sources, and estimators of dynamical state. About 2 per cent of MARD-Y3 clusters have multiple possible counterparts, the photo-z’s are high quality with σΔz/(1 + z) = 0.0046, and ∼1 per cent of clusters exhibit evidence of X-ray luminosity boosting from emission by cluster active galactic nuclei. Comparison with other catalogues (MCXC, RM, SPT-SZ, Planck) is performed to test consistency of richness, luminosity, and mass estimates. We measure the MARD-Y3 X-ray luminosity function and compare it to the expectation from a fiducial cosmology and externally calibrated luminosity- and richness–mass relations. Agreement is good, providing evidence that MARD-Y3 has low contamination and can be understood as a simple two step selection – X-ray and then optical – of an underlying cluster population described by the halo mass function.

Measurement of redshift-dependent cross-correlation of HSC clusters andFermiγ-rays

The cross-correlation study of the unresolved $\gamma$-ray background (UGRB) with galaxy clusters has a potential to reveal the nature of the UGRB. In this paper, we perform a cross-correlation analysis between $\gamma$-ray data by the Fermi Large Area Telescope (Fermi-LAT) and a galaxy cluster catalogue from the Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) survey. The Subaru HSC cluster catalogue provides a wide and homogeneous large-scale structure distribution out to the high redshift at $z=1.1$, which has not been accessible in previous cross-correlation studies. We conduct the cross-correlation analysis not only for clusters in the all redshift range ($0.1 < z < 1.1$) of the survey, but also for subsamples of clusters divided into redshift bins, the low redshift bin ($0.1 < z < 0.6$) and the high redshift bin ($0.6 < z < 1.1$), to utilize the wide redshift coverage of the cluster catalogue. We find the evidence of the cross-correlation signals with the significance of 2.0-2.3$\sigma$ for all redshift and low-redshift cluster samples. On the other hand, for high-redshift clusters, we find the signal with weaker significance level (1.6-1.9$\sigma$). We also compare the observed cross-correlation functions with predictions of a theoretical model in which the UGRB originates from $\gamma$-ray emitters such as blazars, star-forming galaxies and radio galaxies. We find that the detected signal is consistent with the model prediction.