No Arabic abstract
We present a new strong lensing mass reconstruction of the Bullet cluster (1E 0657-56) at z=0.296, based on WFC3 and ACS HST imaging and VLT/FORS2 spectroscopy. The strong lensing constraints underwent substantial revision compared to previously published analysis, there are now 14 (six new and eight previously known) multiply-imaged systems, of which three have spectroscopically confirmed redshifts (including one newly measured from this work). The reconstructed mass distribution explicitly included the combination of three mass components: i) the intra-cluster gas mass derived from X-ray observation, ii) the cluster galaxies modeled by their fundamental plane scaling relations and iii) dark matter. The model that includes the intra-cluster gas is the one with the best Bayesian evidence. This model has a total RMS value of 0.158 between the predicted and measured image positions for the 14 multiple images considered. The proximity of the total RMS to resolution of HST/WFC3 and ACS (0.07-0.15 FWHM) demonstrates the excellent precision of our mass model. The derived mass model confirms the spatial offset between the X-ray gas and dark matter peaks. The fraction of the galaxy halos mass to total mass is found to be f_s=11+/-5% for a total mass of 2.5+/-0.1 x 10^14 solar mass within a 250 kpc radial aperture.
Line emission from dark matter is well motivated for some candidates e.g. sterile neutrinos. We present the first search for dark matter line emission in the 3-80keV range in a pointed observation of the Bullet Cluster with NuSTAR. We do not detect any significant line emission and instead we derive upper limits (95% CL) on the flux, and interpret these constraints in the context of sterile neutrinos and more generic dark matter candidates. NuSTAR does not have the sensitivity to constrain the recently claimed line detection at 3.5keV, but improves on the constraints for energies of 10-25keV.
We report on the X-ray observation of a strong lensing selected group, SL2S J08544-0121, with a total mass of $2.4 pm 0.6 times 10^{14}$ $rm{M_odot}$ which revealed a separation of $124pm20$ kpc between the X-ray emitting collisional gas and the collisionless galaxies and dark matter (DM), traced by strong lensing. This source allows to put an order of magnitude estimate to the upper limit to the interaction cross section of DM of 10 cm$^2$ g$^{-1}$. It is the lowest mass object found to date showing a DM-baryons separation and it reveals that the detection of bullet-like objects is not rare and confined to mergers of massive objects opening the possibility of a statistical detection of DM-baryons separation with future surveys.
We show that the fast moving component of the bullet cluster (1E0657-56) can induce potentially resolvable redshift differences between multiply-lensed images of background galaxies. The moving cluster effect can be expressed as the scalar product of the lensing deflection angle with the tangential velocity of the mass components, and it is maximal for clusters colliding in the plane of the sky with velocities boosted by their mutual gravity. The bullet cluster is likely to be the best candidate for the first measurement of this effect due to the large collision velocity and because the lensing deflection and the cluster fields can be calculated in advance. We derive the deflection field using multiply-lensed background galaxies detected with the Hubble Space Telescope. The velocity field is modeled using self-consistent N-body/hydrodynamical simulations constrained by the observed X-ray and gravitational lensing features of this system. We predict that the triply-lensed images of systems G and H straddling the critical curve of the bullet component will show the largest frequency shifts up to ~0.5 km/sec. This is within the range of the Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array (ALMA) for molecular emission, and is near the resolution limit of the new generation high-throughput optical-IR spectrographs. A detection of this effect measures the tangential motion of the subclusters directly, thereby clarifying the tension with LCDM, which is inferred from gas motion less directly. This method may be extended to smaller redshift differences using the Ly-alpha forest towards QSOs lensed by more typical clusters of galaxies. More generally, the tangential component of the peculiar velocities of clusters derived by our method complements the radial component determined by the kinematic SZ effect, providing a full 3-dimensional description of velocities.
In this work, we report on a detailed simulation of the Bullet Cluster (1E0657-56) merger, including magnetohydrodynamics, plasma cooling, and adaptive mesh refinement. We constrain the simulation with data from gravitational lensing reconstructions and 0.5 - 2 keV Chandra X-ray flux map, then compare the resulting model to higher energy X-ray fluxes, the extracted plasma temperature map, Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect measurements, and cluster halo radio emission. We constrain the initial conditions by minimizing the chi-squared figure of merit between the full 2D observational data sets and the simulation, rather than comparing only a few features such as the location of subcluster centroids, as in previous studies. A simple initial configuration of two triaxial clusters with NFW dark matter profiles and physically reasonable plasma profiles gives a good fit to the current observational morphology and X-ray emissions of the merging clusters. There is no need for unconventional physics or extreme infall velocities. The study gives insight into the astrophysical processes at play during a galaxy cluster merger, and constrains the strength and coherence length of the magnetic fields. The techniques developed here to create realistic, stable, triaxial clusters, and to utilize the totality of the 2D image data, will be applicable to future simulation studies of other merging clusters. This approach of constrained simulation, when applied to well-measured systems, should be a powerful complement to present tools for understanding X-ray clusters and their magnetic fields, and the processes governing their formation.
The surface density and vertical distribution of stars, stellar remnants, and gas in the solar vicinity form important ingredients for understanding the star formation history of the Galaxy as well as for inferring the local density of dark matter by using stellar kinematics to probe the gravitational potential. In this paper we review the literature for these baryonic components, reanalyze data, and provide tables of the surface densities and exponential scale heights of main sequence stars, giants, brown dwarfs, and stellar remnants. We also review three components of gas (H2, HI, and HII), give their surface densities at the solar circle, and discuss their vertical distribution. We find a local total surface density of M dwarfs of 17.3 pm 2.3 Mo/pc^2. Our result for the total local surface density of visible stars, 27.0 pm 2.7 Mo/pc^2, is close to previous estimates due to a cancellation of opposing effects: more mass in M dwarfs, less mass in the others. The total local surface density in white dwarfs is 4.9 pm 0.6 Mo/pc^2; in brown dwarfs, it is ~1.2 Mo/pc^2. We find that the total local surface density of stars and stellar remnants is 33.4 pm 3 Mo/pc^2, somewhat less than previous estimates. We analyze data on 21 cm emission and absorption and obtain good agreement with recent results on the local amount of neutral atomic hydrogen obtained with the Planck satellite. The local surface density of gas is 13.7 pm 1.6 Mo/pc^2. The total baryonic mass surface density that we derive for the solar neighborhood is 47.1 pm 3.4 Mo/pc^2. Combining these results with others measurements of the total surface density of matter within 1-1.1 kpc of the plane, we find that the local density of dark matter is 0.013 pm 0.003Mo/pc^3.The local density of all matter is 0.097 pm 0.013 Mo/pc^3. We discuss limitations on the properties of a possible thin disk of dark matter.