Cluster Virial Radius Research Articles

A Virgo Environmental Survey Tracing Ionised Gas Emission (VESTIGE)

We examine the prevalence of truncated star-forming discs in the Virgo cluster down to M* ≃ 107 M⊙. This work makes use of deep, high-resolution imaging in the Hα+[N II] narrow-band from the Virgo Environmental Survey Tracing Ionised Gas Emission (VESTIGE) and optical imaging from the Next Generation Virgo Survey (NGVS). To aid in the understanding of the effects of the cluster environment on star formation in Virgo galaxies, we take a physically motivated approach to define the edge of the star-forming disc via a drop-off in the radial specific star formation rate profile. A comparison with the expected sizes of normal galactic discs provides a measure of how truncated star-forming discs are in the cluster. We find that truncated star-forming discs are nearly ubiquitous across all regions of the Virgo cluster, including beyond the virial radius (0.974 Mpc). The majority of truncated discs at large cluster-centric radii are of galaxies likely on their first infall. As the intra-cluster medium density is low in this region, it is difficult to explain this population with solely ram-pressure stripping. A plausible explanation is that these galaxies are undergoing starvation of their gas supply before ram-pressure stripping becomes the dominant quenching mechanism. A simple model of starvation shows that this mechanism can produce moderate disc truncations within 1−2 Gyr. This model is consistent with ‘slow-then-rapid’ or ‘delayed-then-rapid’ quenching, whereby the early starvation mode drives disc truncations without significant change to the integrated star formation rate, and the later ram-pressure stripping mode rapidly quenches the galaxy. The origin of starvation may be in the group structures that exist around the main Virgo cluster, which indicates the importance of understanding pre-processing of galaxies beyond the cluster virial radius.

Early Results from GLASS-JWST. XX. Unveiling a Population of “Red Excess” Galaxies in Abell2744 and in the Coeval Field

We combine JWST/NIRCam imaging and MUSE data to characterize the properties of galaxies in different environmental conditions in the cluster Abell2744 (z = 0.3064) and in its immediate surroundings. We investigate how galaxy colors, morphology, and star-forming fractions depend on wavelength and on different parameterizations of environment. Our most striking result is the discovery of a “red excess” population in F200W−F444W colors in both the cluster regions and the field. These galaxies have normal F115W−F150W colors but are up to 0.8 mag redder than red sequence galaxies in F200W−F444W. They also have rather blue rest-frame B−V colors. Galaxies in the field and at the cluster virial radius are overall characterized by redder colors, but galaxies with the largest color deviations are found in the field and in the cluster core. Several results suggest that mechanisms taking place in these regions might be more effective in producing these colors. Looking at their morphology, many cluster galaxies show signatures consistent with ram pressure stripping, while field galaxies have features resembling interactions and mergers. Our hypothesis is that these galaxies are characterized by dust-enshrouded star formation: a JWST/NIRSpec spectrum for one of the galaxies is dominated by a strong PAH at 3.3 μm, suggestive of dust-obscured star formation. Larger spectroscopic samples are needed to understand whether the color excess is due exclusively to dust-obscured star formation, as well as the role of environment in triggering it.

Galaxy populations in the Hydra I cluster from the VEGAS survey

Context. Due to their relatively low stellar mass content and diffuse nature, the evolution of dwarf galaxies can be strongly affected by their environment. Analyzing the properties of the dwarf galaxies over a wide range of luminosities, sizes, morphological types, and environments, we can obtain insights about their evolution. At ∼50 Mpc, the Hydra I cluster of galaxies is among the closest cluster in the z ≃ 0 Universe, and an ideal environment to study dwarf galaxy properties in a cluster environment. Aims. We exploit deep imaging data of the Hydra I cluster to construct a new photometric catalog of dwarf galaxies in the cluster core, which is then used to derive properties of the Hydra I cluster dwarf galaxy population as well as to compare it with other clusters. Moreover, we investigate the dependency of dwarf galaxy properties on their surrounding environment. Methods. The new wide-field g- and r-band images of the Hydra I cluster obtained with the OmegaCAM camera on the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) in the context of the VST Early-type GAlaxy Survey (VEGAS) were used to study the dwarf galaxy population in the Hydra I cluster core down to r-band magnitude Mr = −11.5 mag. We used an automatic detection tool to identify dwarf galaxies from a ∼1 deg2 field centered on the Hydra I core, covering almost half of the cluster virial radius. The photometric pipeline was used to estimate the principal photometric parameters for all targets. Scaling relations and visual inspection were used to assess the cluster membership and construct a new dwarf galaxy catalog. Finally, based on the new catalog, we studied the structural (Sérsic index n, effective radius Re, and axis ratio) and photometric (colors and surface brightness) properties of the dwarf galaxies, also investigating how they vary as a function of clustercentric distance. Results. The new Hydra I dwarf catalog contains 317 galaxies with a luminosity between −18.5 < Mr < −11.5 mag, a semi-major axis larger than ∼200 pc (a = 0.84″), of which 202 are new detections, and previously unknown dwarf galaxies in the Hydra I central region. We estimate that our detection efficiency reaches 50% at the limiting magnitude Mr = −11.5 mag, and at the mean effective surface brightness μ̄e,r = 26.5 mag arcsec−2. We present the standard scaling relations for dwarf galaxies, which are color-magnitude, size-luminosity, and Sérsic n-magnitude relations, and compare them with other nearby clusters. We find that there are no observational differences for dwarfs scaling relations in clusters of different sizes. We study the spatial distribution of galaxies, finding evidence for the presence of substructures within half the virial radius. We also find that mid- and high-luminosity dwarfs (Mr < −14.5 mag) become, on average, redder toward the cluster center, and that they have a mild increase in Re with increasing clustercentric distance, similar to what is observed for the Fornax cluster. No clear clustercentric trends are reported for surface brightness and Sérsic index. Considering galaxies in the same magnitude bins, we find that for high and mid-luminosity dwarfs (Mr < −13.5 mag), the g − r color is redder for the brighter surface brightness and higher Sérsic n index objects. This finding is consistent with the effects of harassment and/or partial gas stripping.

AMICO galaxy clusters in KiDS-DR3

Context. The large-scale mass distribution around dark matter haloes hosting galaxy clusters provides sensitive cosmological information. Aims. In this work we make use of a large photometric galaxy cluster sample, constructed from the public Third Data Release of the Kilo-Degree Survey, and the corresponding shear signal, to assess cluster masses and test the concordance Λ-cold dark matter (ΛCDM) model. In particular, we study the weak gravitational lensing effects on scales beyond the cluster virial radius, where the signal is dominated by correlated and uncorrelated matter density distributions along the line of sight. The analysed catalogue consists of 6962 galaxy clusters, in the redshift range 0.1 ≤ z ≤ 0.6 and with signal-to-noise ratios higher than 3.5. Methods. We perform a full Bayesian analysis to model the stacked shear profiles of these clusters. The adopted likelihood function considers both the small-scale one-halo term, used primarily to constrain the cluster structural properties, and the two-halo term, that can be used to constrain cosmological parameters. Results. We find that the adopted modelling is successful in assessing both the cluster masses and the total matter density parameter, ΩM, when fitting shear profiles up to the largest available scales of 35 Mpc h−1. Moreover, our results provide a strong observational evidence of the two-halo signal in the stacked gravitational lensing of galaxy clusters, further demonstrating the reliability of this probe for cosmological studies. The main result of this work is a robust constraint on ΩM, assuming a flat ΛCDM cosmology. We get ΩM = 0.29 ± 0.02, estimated from the full posterior probability distribution, consistent with the estimates from cosmic microwave background experiments.

Joint constraints on the field-cluster mixing fraction, common envelope efficiency, and globular cluster radii from a population of binary hole mergers via deep learning

The recent release of the second Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog (GWTC-2) has increased significantly the number of known GW events, enabling unprecedented constraints on formation models of compact binaries. One pressing question is to understand the fraction of binaries originating from different formation channels, such as isolated field formation versus dynamical formation in dense stellar clusters. In this paper, we combine the $\texttt{COSMIC}$ binary population synthesis suite and the $\texttt{CMC}$ code for globular cluster evolution to create a mixture model for black hole binary formation under both formation scenarios. For the first time, these code bodies are combined self-consistently, with $\texttt{CMC}$ itself employing $\texttt{COSMIC}$ to track stellar evolution. We then use a deep-learning enhanced hierarchical Bayesian analysis to constrain the mixture fraction $f$ between formation models, while simultaneously constraining the common envelope efficiency $\alpha$ assumed in $\texttt{COSMIC}$ and the initial cluster virial radius $r_v$ assumed in $\texttt{CMC}$. Under specific assumptions about other uncertain aspects of isolated binary and globular cluster evolution, we report the median and $90\%$ confidence interval of three physical parameters $(f,\alpha,r_v)=(0.20^{+0.32}_{-0.18},2.26^{+2.65}_{-1.84},2.71^{+0.83}_{-1.17})$. This simultaneous constraint agrees with observed properties of globular clusters in the Milky Way and is an important first step in the pathway toward learning astrophysics of compact binary formation from GW observations.

A blind ATCA HI survey of the Fornax galaxy cluster

We present the first interferometric blind HI survey of the Fornax galaxy cluster, which covers an area of 15 deg2 out to the cluster virial radius. The survey has a spatial and velocity resolution of 67″ × 95″(∼6 × 9 kpc at the Fornax cluster distance of 20 Mpc) and 6.6 km s−1 and a 3σ sensitivity of NHI ∼ 2 × 1019 cm−2 and MHI ∼ 2 × 107 M⊙, respectively. We detect 16 galaxies out of roughly 200 spectroscopically confirmed Fornax cluster members. The detections cover about three orders of magnitude in HI mass, from 8 × 106 to 1.5 × 1010 M⊙. They avoid the central, virialised region of the cluster both on the sky and in projected phase-space, showing that they are recent arrivals and that, in Fornax, HI is lost within a crossing time, ∼2 Gyr. Half of these galaxies exhibit a disturbed HI morphology, including several cases of asymmetries, tails, offsets between HI and optical centres, and a case of a truncated HI disc. This suggests that these recent arrivals have been interacting with other galaxies, the large-scale potential or the intergalactic medium, within or on their way to Fornax. As a whole, our Fornax HI detections are HI-poorer and form stars at a lower rate than non-cluster galaxies in the same M⋆ range. This is particularly evident at M⋆ ≲ 109 M⊙, indicating that low mass galaxies are more strongly affected throughout their infall towards the cluster. The MHI/M⋆ ratio of Fornax galaxies is comparable to that in the Virgo cluster. At fixed M⋆, our HI detections follow the non-cluster relation between MHI and the star formation rate, and we argue that this implies that thus far they have lost their HI on a timescale ≳1−2 Gyr. Deeper inside the cluster HI removal is likely to proceed faster, as confirmed by a population of HI-undetected but H2-detected star-forming galaxies. Overall, based on ALMA data, we find a large scatter in H2-to-HI mass ratio, with several galaxies showing an unusually high ratio that is probably caused by faster HI removal. Finally, we identify an HI-rich subgroup of possible interacting galaxies dominated by NGC 1365, where pre-processing is likely to have taken place.

Investigating the projected phase space of Gaussian and non-Gaussian clusters

ABSTRACT By way of the projected phase space (PPS), we investigate the relation between galaxy properties and cluster environment in a subsample of groups from the Yang catalogue. The sample is split according to the Gaussianity of the velocity distribution in the group into Gaussian (G) and non-Gaussian (NG). Our sample is limited to massive clusters with $\rm \mathit{ M}_{200} \ge 10^{14}\, M_{\odot }$ and $\rm 0.03\le \mathit{ z} \le 0.1$. NG clusters are more massive, less concentrated and have an excess of faint (F) galaxies compared to G clusters. NG clusters show mixed distributions of galaxy properties in the PPS compared to the G case. Using the relation between infall time and locus on the PPS, we find that, on average, NG clusters accreted ${\sim}\rm 10^{11}\, M_{\odot }$ more stellar mass in the last ∼5 Gyr than G clusters. The relation between galaxy properties and infall time is significantly different for galaxies in G and NG systems. The more mixed distribution in the PPS of NG clusters translates into shallower relations with infall time. F galaxies whose first crossing of the cluster virial radius happened 2–4 Gyr ago in NG clusters are older and more metal-rich than in G systems. All these results suggest that NG clusters experience a higher accretion of pre-processed galaxies, which characterizes G and NG clusters as different environments to study galaxy evolution.

SEEDisCS

We investigate how the galaxy reservoirs of molecular gas fuelling star formation are transformed while the host galaxies infall onto galaxy cluster cores. As part of the Spatially Extended ESO Distant Cluster Survey (SEEDisCS), we present CO(3-2) observations of 27 star-forming galaxies obtained with the Atacama Large Millimeter Array. These sources are located inside and around CL1411.1−1148 at z = 0.5195, within five times the cluster virial radius. These targets were selected to have stellar masses (Mstar), colours, and magnitudes similar to those of a field comparison sample at similar redshift drawn from the Plateau de Bure high-z Blue Sequence Survey (PHIBSS2). We compare the cold gas fraction (μH2 = MH2/Mstar), specific star formation rates (SFR/Mstar) and depletion timescales (tdepl = MH2/SFR) of our main-sequence galaxies to the PHIBSS2 subsample. While the most of our galaxies (63%) are consistent with PHIBSS2, the remainder fall below the relation between μH2 and Mstar of the PHIBSS2 galaxies at z ∼ 0.5. These low-μH2 galaxies are not compatible with the tail of a Gaussian distribution, hence they correspond to a new population of galaxies with normal SFRs but low gas content and low depletion times (≲1 Gyr), absent from previous surveys. We suggest that the star formation activity of these galaxies has not yet been diminished by their low fraction of cold molecular gas.

On the phase-space structure of galaxy clusters from cosmological simulations

ABSTRACT Cosmological N-body simulations represent an excellent tool to study the formation and evolution of dark matter (DM) haloes and the mechanisms that have originated the universal profile at the largest mass scales in the Universe. In particular, the combination of the velocity dispersion σv with the density ρ can be used to define the pseudo-entropy $S(r)=\sigma _\mathrm{v}^2/\rho ^{\, 2/3}$, whose profile is well described by a simple power law $S\propto \, r^{\, \alpha }$. We analyse a set of cosmological hydrodynamical re-simulations of massive galaxy clusters and study the pseudo-entropy profiles as traced by different collisionless components in simulated galaxy clusters: DM, stars, and substructures. We analyse four sets of simulations, exploring different resolution and physics (N-body and full hydrodynamical simulations) to investigate convergence and the impact of baryons. We find that baryons significantly affect the inner region of pseudo-entropy profiles as traced by substructures, while DM particles profiles are characterized by an almost universal behaviour, thus suggesting that the level of pseudo-entropy could represent a potential low-scatter mass-proxy. We compare observed and simulated pseudo-entropy profiles and find good agreement in both normalization and slope. We demonstrate, however, that the method used to derive observed pseudo-entropy profiles could introduce biases and underestimate the impact of mergers. Finally, we investigate the pseudo-entropy traced by the stars focusing our interest in the dynamical distinction between intracluster light and the stars bound to the brightest cluster galaxy: the combination of these two pseudo-entropy profiles is well described by a single power law out to almost the entire cluster virial radius.

Collision of merger and accretion shocks: formation of Mpc-scale contact discontinuity in the Perseus cluster

ABSTRACT Two Mpc-size contact discontinuities have recently been identified in the XMM–Newton and Suzaku X-ray observations in the outskirts of the Perseus cluster (Walker et al.). These structures have been tentatively interpreted as ‘sloshing cold fronts’, which are customarily associated with differential motions of the cluster gas, perturbed by a merger. In this study, we consider an alternative scenario, namely, that the most prominent discontinuity, near the cluster virial radius, is the result of the collision between the accretion shock and a ‘runaway’ merger shock. We also discuss the possible origin of the second discontinuity at ${\sim}1.2{\rm \, Mpc}$.

Manufacturing cosmic rays in the evolving dynamical states of galaxy clusters

ABSTRACT Galaxy clusters are known to be reservoirs of cosmic rays (CRs), as inferred from theoretical calculations or detection of CR-derived observables. CR acceleration in clusters is mostly attributed to the dynamical activity that produces shocks. Shocks in clusters emerge out of merger or accretion, but which one is more effective in producing CRs? at which dynamical phase? and why? To this aim, we study the production or injection of CRs through shocks and its evolution in the galaxy clusters using cosmological simulations with the enzo code. Particle acceleration model considered here is primarily the Diffusive Shock Acceleration (DSA) of thermal particles, but we also report a tentative study with pre-existing CRs. Defining appropriate dynamical states using the concept of virialization, we studied a sample of merging and non-merging clusters. We report that the merger shocks (with Mach number $\mathcal {M}\sim 2-5$) are the most effective CR producers, while high-Mach peripheral shocks (i.e. $\mathcal {M}\gt 5$) are mainly responsible for the brightest phase of CR injection in clusters. Clusters once merged, permanently deviate from CR and X-ray mass scaling of non-merging systems, enabling us to use it as a tool to determine the state of merger. Through a temporal and spatial evolution study, we found a strong correlation between cluster merger dynamics and CR injection. We observed that the brightest phase of X-ray and CR injection from clusters occurs, respectively, at about 1.0 and 1.5 Gyr after every mergers, and CR injection peaks near to the cluster virial radius (i.e r200). Delayed CR injection peaks found in this study deserve further investigation for possible impact on the evolution of CR-derived observables from galaxy clusters.

H2 content of galaxies inside and around intermediate redshift clusters

AbstractDense environments have an impact on the star formation rate of galaxies. As stars form from molecular gas, looking at the cold molecular gas content of a galaxy gives useful insights on its efficiency in forming stars. However, most galaxies observed in CO (a proxy for the cold molecular gas content) at intermediate redshifts, are field galaxies. Only a handful of studies focused on cluster galaxies. I present new results on the environment of one medium mass cluster from the EDisCS survey at z ˜ 0.5. 27 star-forming galaxies were selected to evenly sample the range of densities encountered inside and around the cluster. We cover a region extending as far as 8 virial radii from the cluster center. Indeed there is ample evidence that star formation quenching starts already beyond 3 cluster virial radii. I discuss our CO(3-2) ALMA observations, which unveil a large fraction of galaxies with low gas-to-stellar mass ratios.

The XXL Survey

Context. Superclusters form from the largest enhancements in the primordial density perturbation field and extend for tens of Mpc, tracing the large-scale structure of the Universe. X-ray detections and systematic characterisations of superclusters and the properties of their galaxies have only been possible in the last few years. Aims. We characterise XLSSsC N01, a rich supercluster at z ~ 0.3 detected in the XXL Survey, composed of X-ray clusters of different virial masses and X-ray luminosities. As one of the first studies on this topic, we investigate the stellar populations of galaxies in different environments in the supercluster region. Methods. We study a magnitude-limited (r ≤ 20) and a mass-limited sample (log(M*∕M⊙) ≥ 10.8) of galaxies in the virialised region and in the outskirts of 11 XLSSsC N01 clusters, in high-density field regions, and in the low-density field. We compute the stellar population properties of galaxies using spectral energy distribution (SED) and spectral fitting techniques, and study the dependence of star formation rates (SFR), colours, and stellar ages on environment. Results. For r ≤ 20, the fraction of star-forming/blue galaxies, computed either from the specific-SFR (sSFR) or rest-frame colour, shows depletion within the cluster virial radii, where the number of galaxies with log (sSFR/ yr−1) > −12 and with (g − r)restframe < 0.6 is lower than in the field. For log(M*∕M⊙) ≥ 10.8, no trends with environment emerge, as massive galaxies are mostly already passive in all environments. No differences among low- and high-density field members and cluster members emerge in the sSFR-mass relation in the mass-complete regime. Finally, the luminosity-weighted age–mass relation of the passive populations within cluster virial radii show signatures of recent environmental quenching. Conclusions. The study of luminous and massive galaxies in this supercluster shows that while environment has a prominent role in determining the fractions of star-forming/blue galaxies, its effects on the star formation activity in star-forming galaxies are negligible.

Galaxy kinematics and mass calibration in massive SZE-selected galaxy clusters toz = 1.3

The galaxy phase-space distribution in galaxy clusters provides insights into the formation and evolution of cluster galaxies, and it can also be used to measure cluster mass profiles. We present a dynamical study based on $\sim$3000 passive, non-emission line cluster galaxies drawn from 110 galaxy clusters. The galaxy clusters were selected using the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect (SZE) in the 2500~deg$^2$ SPT-SZ survey and cover the redshift range $0.2 < z < 1.3$. We model the clusters using the Jeans equation, while adopting NFW mass profiles and a broad range of velocity dispersion anisotropy profiles. The data prefer velocity dispersion anisotropy profiles that are approximately isotropic near the center and increasingly radial toward the cluster virial radius, and this is true for all redshifts and masses we study. The pseudo-phase-space density profile of the passive galaxies is consistent with expectations for dark matter particles and subhalos from cosmological $N$-body simulations. The dynamical mass constraints are in good agreement with external mass estimates of the SPT cluster sample from either weak lensing, velocity dispersions, or X-ray $Y_X$ measurements. However, the dynamical masses are lower (at the 2.2$\sigma$ level) when compared to the mass calibration favored when fitting the SPT cluster data to a $\Lambda$CDM model with external cosmological priors, including CMB anisotropy data from Planck. The discrepancy grows with redshift, where in the highest redshift bin the ratio of dynamical to SPT+Planck masses is $\eta=0.63^{+0.13}_{-0.08}\pm0.06$ (statistical and systematic), corresponding to a $2.6\sigma$ discrepancy.

The split in the ancient cold front in the Perseus cluster

Sloshing cold fronts in clusters, produced as the dense cluster core moves around in the cluster potential in response to in-falling subgroups, provide a powerful probe of the physics of the intracluster medium (ICM), and the magnetic fields permeating it. These sharp discontinuities in density and temperature rise gradually outwards with age in a characteristic spiral pattern, embedding into the intracluster medium a record of the minor merging activity of clusters: the further from the cluster centre a cold front is, the older it is. Recently it has been discovered that these cold fronts can survive out to extremely large radii in the Perseus cluster. Here we report on high spatial resolution Chandra observations of the large scale cold front in Perseus. We find that rather than broadening through diffusion, the cold front remains extremely sharp (consistent with abrupt jumps in density) but instead is split into two sharp edges. These results show that magnetic draping can suppress diffusion for vast periods of time, around ~5 Gyr, even as the cold front expands out to nearly half the cluster virial radius.

Accretion of satellites on to central galaxies in clusters: merger mass ratios and orbital parameters

We study the statistical properties of mergers between central and satellite galaxies in galaxy clusters in the redshift range $0<z<1$, using a sample of dark-matter only cosmological N-body simulations from Le SBARBINE dataset. Using a spherical overdensity algorithm to identify dark-matter haloes, we construct halo merger trees for different values of the over-density $\Delta_c$. While the virial overdensity definition allows us to probe the accretion of satellites at the cluster virial radius $r_{vir}$, higher overdensities probe satellite mergers in the central region of the cluster, down to $\approx 0.06 r_{vir}$, which can be considered a proxy for the accretion of satellite galaxies onto central galaxies. We find that the characteristic merger mass ratio increases for increasing values of $\Delta_c$: more than $60\%$ of the mass accreted by central galaxies since $z\approx 1$ comes from major mergers. The orbits of satellites accreting onto central galaxies tend to be more tangential and more bound than orbits of haloes accreting at the virial radius. The obtained distributions of merger mass ratios and orbital parameters are useful to model the evolution of the high-mass end of the galaxy scaling relations without resorting to hydrodynamic cosmological simulations.

OmegaWINGS: spectroscopy in the outskirts of local clusters of galaxies

Studies of the properties of low-redshift cluster galaxies suffer, in general, from small spatial coverage of the cluster area. WINGS, the most homogeneous and complete study of galaxies in dense environments to date, obtained spectroscopic redshifts for 48 clusters at a median redshift of 0.05, out to an average distance of approximately 0.5 cluster virial radii. The WINGS photometric survey was recently extended by the VST survey OmegaWINGS to cover the outskirts of a subset of the original cluster sample. In this work, we present the spectroscopic follow-up of 33 of the 46 clusters of galaxies observed with VST over 1 square degree. The aim of this spectroscopic survey is to enlarge the number of cluster members and study the galaxy characteristics and the cluster dynamical properties out to large radii, reaching the virial radius and beyond. We used the AAOmega spectrograph at AAT to obtain fiber-integrated spectra covering the wavelength region between 3800 and 9000 A, with a spectral resolution of 3.5-6 A full width at half maximum (FWHM). Observations were performed using two different configurations and exposure times per cluster. We measured redshifts using both absorption and emission lines and used them to derive the cluster redshifts and velocity dispersions. We present here the redshift measurements for 17985 galaxies, 7497 of which turned out to be cluster members. The sample magnitude completeness is 80% at V=20. Thanks to the observing strategy, the radial completeness turned out to be relatively constant (90%) within the AAOmega field of view. The success rate in measuring redshifts is 95%, at all radii. We provide redshifts for the full sample of galaxies in OmegaWINGS clusters together with updated and robust cluster redshift and velocity dispersions. These data will be publicly accessible through the CDS and VO archives.

ATCA observations of the MACS-PlanckRadio Halo Cluster Project

We investigate the possible presence of diffuse radio emission in the intermediate redshift, massive cluster PLCK G285.0-23.7 (z=0.39, M_500 = 8.39 x 10^(14) M_Sun). Our 16cm-band ATCA observations of PLCK G285.0-23.7 allow us to reach a rms noise level of ~11 microJy/beam on the wide-band (1.1-3.1 GHz), full-resolution (~5 arcsec) image of the cluster, making it one of the deepest ATCA images yet published. We also re-image visibilities at lower resolution in order to achieve a better sensitivity to low-surface-brightness extended radio sources. We detect one of the lowest luminosity radio halos known at z>0.35, characterised by a slight offset from the well-studied 1.4 GHz radio power vs. cluster mass correlation. Similarly to most known radio-loud clusters (i.e. those hosting diffuse non-thermal sources), PLCK G285.0-23.7 has a disturbed dynamical state. Our analysis reveals a similarly elongated X-ray and radio morphology. While the size of the radio halo in PLCK G285.0-23.7 is smaller than lower redshift radio-loud clusters in the same mass range, it shows a similar correlation with the cluster virial radius, as expected in the framework of hierarchical structure formation.

Deep observation of the NGC 1275 region with MAGIC: search of diffuseγ-ray emission from cosmic rays in the Perseus cluster

Clusters of galaxies are expected to be reservoirs of cosmic rays (CRs) that should produce diffuse gamma-ray emission due to their hadronic interactions with the intra-cluster medium. The nearby Perseus cool-core cluster, identified as the most promising target to search for such an emission, has been observed with the MAGIC telescopes at very-high energies (VHE, E>100 GeV) for a total of 253 hr from 2009 to 2014. The active nuclei of NGC 1275, the central dominant galaxy of the cluster, and IC 310, lying at about 0.6$^\circ$ from the centre, have been detected as point-like VHE gamma-ray emitters during the first phase of this campaign. We report an updated measurement of the NGC 1275 spectrum, which is well described by a power law with a photon index of $3.6\pm0.2_{stat}\pm0.2_{syst}$ between 90 GeV and 1.2 TeV. We do not detect any diffuse gamma-ray emission from the cluster and set stringent constraints on its CR population. In order to bracket the uncertainties over the CR spatial and spectral distributions, we adopt different spatial templates and power-law spectral indexes $\alpha$. For $\alpha=2.2$, the CR-to-thermal pressure within the cluster virial radius is constrained to be below 1-2%, except if CRs can propagate out of the cluster core, generating a flatter radial distribution and releasing the CR-to-thermal pressure constraint to <20%. Assuming that the observed radio mini-halo of Perseus is generated by secondary electrons from CR hadronic interactions, we can derive lower limits on the central magnetic field, $B_0$, that depend on the CR distribution. For $\alpha=2.2$, $B_0\gtrsim5-8 \mu$G, which is below the 25 $\mu$G inferred from Faraday rotation measurements, whereas, for $\alpha\lesssim2.1$, the hadronic interpretation of the diffuse radio emission is in contrast with our gamma-ray flux upper limits independently of the magnetic field strength.

A newly discovered radio halo in merging cluster MACS J2243.3-0935

We report the discovery of a radio halo in the massive merging cluster MACSJ2243.3-0935, as well as a new radio relic candidate, using the Giant Meterwave Radio Telescope and the KAT-7 telescope. The radio halo is coincident with the cluster X-ray emission and has a largest linear scale of approximately 0.9 Mpc. We measure a flux density of $10.0\pm 2.0$ mJy at 610 MHz for the radio halo. We discuss equipartition estimates of the cluster magnetic field and constrain the value to be of the order of 1 $\mu$G. The relic candidate is detected at the cluster virial radius where a filament meets the cluster. The relic candidate has a flux density of $5.2\pm 0.8$ mJy at 610 MHz. We discuss possible origins of the relic candidate emission and conclude that the candidate is consistent with an infall relic.