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Register a new userThe 400d Galaxy Cluster Survey weak lensing programme: II: Weak lensing study of seven clusters with MMT/Megacam
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Evolution in the mass function of galaxy clusters sensitively traces both the expansion history of the Universe and cosmological structure formation. Robust cluster mass determinations are a key ingredient for a reliable measurement of this evolution, especially at high redshift. Weak gravitational lensing is a promising tool for, on average, unbiased mass estimates. This weak lensing project aims at measuring reliable weak lensing masses for a complete X-ray selected sample of 36 high redshift (0.35<z<0.9) clusters. The goal of this paper is to demonstrate the robustness of the methodology against commonly encountered problems, including pure instrumental effects, the presence of bright (8--9 mag) stars close to the cluster centre, ground based measurements of high-z (z~0.8) clusters, and the presence of massive unrelated structures along the line-sight. We select a subsample of seven clusters observed with MMT/Megacam. Instrumental effects are checked in detail by cross-comparison with an archival CFHT/MegaCam observation. We derive mass estimates for seven clusters by modelling the tangential shear with an NFW profile, in two cases with multiple components to account for projected structures in the line-of-sight. We firmly detect lensing signals from all seven clusters at more than $3.5sigma$ and determine their masses, ranging from $10^{14} M_{odot}$ to $10^{15} M_{odot}$, despite the presence of nearby bright stars. We retrieve the lensing signal of more than one cluster in the CL 1701+6414 field, while apparently observing CL 1701+6414 through a massive foreground filament. We also find a multi-peaked shear signal in CL 1641+4001. Shear structures measured in the MMT and CFHT images of CL 1701+6414 are highly correlated.
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The mass function of galaxy clusters at high redshifts is a particularly useful probe to learn about the history of structure formation and constrain cosmological parameters. We aim at deriving reliable masses for a high-redshift, high-luminosity sample of clusters of galaxies selected from the 400d survey of X-ray selected clusters. Here, we will focus on a particular object, CL0030+2618 at z=0.50 Using deep imaging in three passbands with the MEGACAM instrument at MMT, we show that MEGACAM is well-suited for measuring gravitational shear. We detect the weak lensing signal of CL0030+2618 at 5.8 sigma significance, using the aperture mass technique. Furthermore, we find significant tangential alignment of galaxies out to ~10 arcmin or >2r_200 distance from the cluster centre. The weak lensing centre of CL0030+2618 agrees with several X-ray measurements and the position of the brightest cluster galaxy. Finally, we infer a weak lensing virial mass of M_200=7.5 10^{14} M_sun for CL0030+2618. Despite complications by a tentative foreground galaxy group in the line of sight, the X-ray and weak lensing estimates for CL0030+2618 are in remarkable agreement. This study paves the way for the largest weak lensing survey of high-redshift galaxy clusters to date.
Scaling properties of galaxy cluster observables with mass provide central insights into the processes shaping clusters. Calibrating proxies for cluster mass will be crucial to cluster cosmology with upcoming surveys like eROSITA and Euclid. The recent Planck results led to suggestions that X-ray masses might be biased low by $sim!40$ %, more than previously considered. We extend the direct calibration of the weak lensing -- X-ray mass scaling towards lower masses (as low as $1!times!10^{14},mathrm{M}_{odot}$) in a sample representative of the $z!sim!0.4$--$0.5$ population. We investigate the scaling of MMT/Megacam weak lensing (WL) masses for $8$ clusters at $0.39!leq!z!leq!0.80$ as part of the emph{400d} WL programme with hydrostatic textit{Chandra} X-ray masses as well as those based on the proxies, e.g. $Y_{mathrm{X}}!=!T_{mathrm{X}}M_{mathrm{gas}}$. Overall, we find good agreement between WL and X-ray masses, with different mass bias estimators all consistent with zero. Subdividing the sample, we find the high-mass subsample to show no significant mass bias while for the low-mass subsample, there is a bias towards overestimated X-ray masses at the $sim!2sigma$ level for some mass proxies. The overall scatter in the mass-mass scaling relations is surprisingly low. Neither observation can be traced back to the parameter settings in the WL analysis. We do not find evidence for a strong ($sim!40$ %) underestimate in the X-ray masses, as suggested to reconcile Planck cluster counts and cosmological constraints. For high-mass clusters, our measurements are consistent with studies in the literature. The mass dependent bias, significant at $sim!2sigma$, may hint at a physically different cluster population (less relaxed clusters with more substructure and mergers); or it may be due to small number statistics.
Weak gravitational lensing of background galaxies provides a direct probe of the projected matter distribution in and around galaxy clusters. Here we present a self-contained pedagogical review of cluster--galaxy weak lensing, covering a range of topics relevant to its cosmological and astrophysical applications. We begin by reviewing the theoretical foundations of gravitational lensing from first principles, with special attention to the basics and advanced techniques of weak gravitational lensing. We summarize and discuss key findings from recent cluster--galaxy weak-lensing studies on both observational and theoretical grounds, with a focus on cluster mass profiles, the concentration--mass relation, the splashback radius, and implications from extensive mass calibration efforts for cluster cosmology.
(Abridged) We use Subaru data to conduct a detailed weak-lensing study of the dark matter distribution in a sample of 30 X-ray luminous galaxy clusters at 0.15<z<0.3. A weak-lensing signal is detected at high statistical significance in each cluster, the total detection S/N ranging from 5 to 13. In this paper we concentrate on fitting spherical models to the tangential distortion profiles of the clusters. When the models are fitted to the clusters individually, we are unable to discriminate statistically between SIS and NFW models. However when the tangential distortion profiles of the individual clusters are combined, and models fitted to the stacked profile, the SIS model is rejected at 6- and 11-sigma, respectively, for low- and high-mass bins. We also use the individual cluster NFW model fits to investigate the relationship between cluster mass (M_vir) and concentration (c_vir), finding an anti-correlation of c_vir and M_vir. The best-fit c_vir-M_vir relation is: c_vir(M_vir) propto M_vir^{-alpha} with alpha=0.41+/-0.19 -- i.e. a non-zero slope is detected at 2sigma significance. We then investigate the optimal radius within which to measure cluster mass, finding that the typical fractional errors are improved to sigma(M_Delta)/M_Delta ~ 0.1-0.2 for cluster masses at higher over-densities Delta=500-2000, from 0.2-0.3 for the virial over-density (~110). Further comparisons between mass measurements based on spherical model fitting and the model-independent aperture mass method reveal that the 2D aperture mass enclosed within a cylinder of a given aperture radius is systematically greater than the 3D spherical mass obtained from NFW model fitting: M_2D/M_3D= 1.34 and 1.40 for Delta=500 and 110, respectively. The amplitude of this effect agrees well with that predicted by integrating the NFW model along the line-of-sight.
Weak gravitational lensing studies of galaxy clusters often assume a spherical cluster model to simplify the analysis, but some recent studies have suggested this simplifying assumption may result in large biases in estimated cluster masses and concentration values, since clusters are expected to exhibit triaxiality. Several such analyses have, however, quoted expressions for the spatial derivatives of the lensing potential in triaxial models, which are open to misinterpretation. In this paper, we give a clear description of weak lensing by triaxial NFW galaxy clusters and also present an efficient and robust method to model these clusters and obtain parameter estimates. By considering four highly triaxial NFW galaxy clusters, we re-examine the impact of simplifying spherical assumptions and found that while the concentration estimates are largely unbiased except in one of our traixial NFW simulated clusters, for which the concentration is only slightly biased, the masses are significantly biased, by up to 40%, for all the clusters we analysed. Moreover, we find that such assumptions can lead to the erroneous conclusion that some substructure is present in the galaxy clusters or, even worse, that multiple galaxy clusters are present in the field. Our cluster fitting method also allows one to answer the question of whether a given cluster exhibits triaxiality or a simple spherical model is good enough.
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