No Arabic abstract
SPT-CLJ2040-4451 -- spectroscopically confirmed at z = 1.478 -- is the highest redshift galaxy cluster yet discovered via the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect. SPT-CLJ2040-4451 was a candidate galaxy cluster identified in the first 720 deg^2 of the South Pole Telescope Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SPT-SZ) survey, and confirmed in follow-up imaging and spectroscopy. From multi-object spectroscopy with Magellan-I/Baade+IMACS we measure spectroscopic redshifts for 15 cluster member galaxies, all of which have strong [O II] 3727 emission. SPT-CLJ2040-4451 has an SZ-measured mass of M_500,SZ = 3.2 +/- 0.8 X 10^14 M_Sun/h_70, corresponding to M_200,SZ = 5.8 +/- 1.4 X 10^14 M_Sun/h_70. The velocity dispersion measured entirely from blue star forming members is sigma_v = 1500 +/- 520 km/s. The prevalence of star forming cluster members (galaxies with > 1.5 M_Sun/yr) implies that this massive, high-redshift cluster is experiencing a phase of active star formation, and supports recent results showing a marked increase in star formation occurring in galaxy clusters at z >1.4. We also compute the probability of finding a cluster as rare as this in the SPT-SZ survey to be >99%, indicating that its discovery is not in tension with the concordance Lambda-CDM cosmological model.
The MeerKAT telescope will be one of the most sensitive radio arrays in the pre-SKA era. Here we discuss a low-frequency SZ-selected cluster survey with MeerKAT, the MeerKAT Extended Relics, Giant Halos, and Extragalactic Radio Sources (MERGHERS) survey. The primary goal of this survey is to detect faint signatures of diffuse cluster emission, specifically radio halos and relics. SZ-selected cluster samples offer a homogeneous, mass-limited set of targets out to higher redshift than X-ray samples. MeerKAT is sensitive enough to detect diffuse radio emission at the faint levels expected in low-mass and high-redshift clusters, thereby enabling radio halo and relic formation theories to be tested with a larger statistical sample over a significantly expanded phase space. Complementary multiwavelength follow-up observations will provide a more complete picture of any clusters found to host diffuse emission, thereby enhancing the scientific return of the MERGHERS survey.
We perform a cross validation of the cluster catalog selected by the red-sequence Matched-filter Probabilistic Percolation algorithm (redMaPPer) in Dark Energy Survey year 1 (DES-Y1) data by matching it with the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect (SZE) selected cluster catalog from the South Pole Telescope SPT-SZ survey. Of the 1005 redMaPPer selected clusters with measured richness $hatlambda>40$ in the joint footprint, 207 are confirmed by SPT-SZ. Using the mass information from the SZE signal, we calibrate the richness--mass relation using a Bayesian cluster population model. We find a mass trend $lambdapropto M^{B}$ consistent with a linear relation ($Bsim1$), no significant redshift evolution and an intrinsic scatter in richness of $sigma_{lambda} = 0.22pm0.06$. At low richness SPT-SZ confirms fewer redMaPPer clusters than expected. We interpret this richness dependent deficit in confirmed systems as due to the increased presence at low richness of low mass objects not correctly accounted for by our richness-mass scatter model, which we call contaminants. At a richness $hat lambda=40$, this population makes up $>$12$%$ (97.5 percentile) of the total population. Extrapolating this to a measured richness $hat lambda=20$ yields $>$22$%$ (97.5 percentile). With these contamination fractions, the predicted redMaPPer number counts in different plausible cosmologies are compatible with the measured abundance. The presence of such a population is also a plausible explanation for the different mass trends ($Bsim0.75$) obtained from mass calibration using purely optically selected clusters. The mean mass from stacked weak lensing (WL) measurements suggests that these low mass contaminants are galaxy groups with masses $sim3$-$5times 10^{13} $ M$_odot$ which are beyond the sensitivity of current SZE and X-ray surveys but a natural target for SPT-3G and eROSITA.
We present a detection of the splashback feature around galaxy clusters selected using their Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) signal. Recent measurements of the splashback feature around optically selected galaxy clusters have found that the splashback radius, $r_{rm sp}$, is smaller than predicted by N-body simulations. A possible explanation for this discrepancy is that $r_{rm sp}$ inferred from the observed radial distribution of galaxies is affected by selection effects related to the optical cluster-finding algorithms. We test this possibility by measuring the splashback feature in clusters selected via the SZ effect in data from the South Pole Telescope SZ survey and the Atacama Cosmology Telescope Polarimeter survey. The measurement is accomplished by correlating these clusters with galaxies detected in the Dark Energy Survey Year 3 data. The SZ observable used to select clusters in this analysis is expected to have a tighter correlation with halo mass and to be more immune to projection effects and aperture-induced biases than optically selected clusters. We find that the measured $r_{rm sp}$ for SZ-selected clusters is consistent with the expectations from simulations, although the small number of SZ-selected clusters makes a precise comparison difficult. In agreement with previous work, when using optically selected redMaPPer clusters, $r_{rm sp}$ is $sim$ $2sigma$ smaller than in the simulations. These results motivate detailed investigations of selection biases in optically selected cluster catalogs and exploration of the splashback feature around larger samples of SZ-selected clusters. Additionally, we investigate trends in the galaxy profile and splashback feature as a function of galaxy color, finding that blue galaxies have profiles close to a power law with no discernible splashback feature, which is consistent with them being on their first infall into the cluster.
We report the discovery of a galaxy cluster at z=1.62 located in the Spitzer Wide-Area Infrared Extragalactic survey XMM-LSS field. This structure was selected solely as an overdensity of galaxies with red Spitzer/IRAC colors, satisfying [3.6]-[4.5] > -0.1 AB mag. Photometric redshifts derived from Subaru XMM Deep Survey (BViz-bands), UKIRT Infrared Deep Survey-Ultra-Deep Survey (UKIDSS-UDS, JK-bands), and from the Spitzer Public UDS survey (3.6-8.0 micron) show that this cluster corresponds to a surface density of galaxies at z ~ 1.6 that is more than 20 sigma above the mean at this redshift. We obtained optical spectroscopic observations of galaxies in the cluster region using IMACS on the Magellan telescope. We measured redshifts for seven galaxies in the range z=1.62-1.63 within 2.8 arcmin (<1.4 Mpc) of the astrometric center of the cluster. A posteriori analysis of the XMM data in this field reveal a weak (4 sigma) detection in the [0.5-2 keV] band compatible with the expected thermal emission from such a cluster. The color-magnitude diagram of the galaxies in this cluster shows a prominent red-sequence, dominated by a population of red galaxies with (z-J) > 1.7 mag. The photometric redshift probability distributions for the red galaxies are strongly peaked at z=1.62, coincident with the spectroscopically confirmed galaxies. The rest-frame (U-B) color and scatter of galaxies on the red-sequence are consistent with a mean luminosity-weighted age of 1.2 +/- 0.1 Gyr, yielding a formation redshift z_f = 2.35 +/- 0.10, and corresponding to the last significant star-formation period in these galaxies.
We present results from a 577 ks XMM-Newton observation of SPT-CL J0459-4947, the most distant cluster detected in the South Pole Telescope 2500 square degree (SPT-SZ) survey, and currently the most distant cluster discovered through its Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect. The data confirm the clusters high redshift, $z=1.71 pm 0.02$, in agreement with earlier, less precise optical/IR photometric estimates. From the gas density profile, we estimate a characteristic mass of $M_{500}=(1.8 pm 0.2) times 10^{14}M_{Sun}$; cluster emission is detected above the background to a radius of $sim 2.2 r_{500}$, or approximately the virial radius. The intracluster gas is characterized by an emission-weighted average temperature of $7.2 pm 0.3$ keV and metallicity with respect to Solar of $0.37 pm 0.08$. For the first time at such high redshift, this deep data set provides a measurement of metallicity outside the cluster center; at radii $r > 0.3 r_{500}$, we find it to be $0.33 pm 0.17$, in good agreement with precise measurements at similar radii in the most nearby clusters, supporting an early enrichment scenario in which the bulk of the cluster gas is enriched to a universal metallicity prior to cluster formation, with little to no evolution thereafter. The leverage provided by the high redshift of this cluster tightens by a factor of 2 constraints on evolving metallicity models, when combined with previous measurements at lower redshifts.