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Register a new userGalaxy clusters as intrinsic alignment tracers: present and future
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Galaxies and clusters embedded in the large-scale structure of the Universe are observed to align in preferential directions. Galaxy alignment has been established as a potential probe for cosmological information, but the application of cluster alignments for these purposes remains unexplored. Clusters are observed to have a higher alignment amplitude than galaxies, but because galaxies are much more numerous, the trade-off in detectability between the two signals remains unclear. We present forecasts comparing cluster and galaxy alignments for two extragalactic survey set-ups: a currently-available low redshift survey (SDSS) and an upcoming higher redshift survey (LSST). For SDSS, we rely on the publicly available redMaPPer catalogue to describe the cluster sample. For LSST, we perform estimations of the expected number counts while we extrapolate the alignment measurements from SDSS. Clusters in SDSS have typically higher alignment signal-to-noise than galaxies. For LSST, the cluster alignment signals quickly wash out with redshift due to a relatively low number count and a decreasing alignment amplitude. Nevertheless, a potential strong-suit of clusters is in their interplay with weak lensing: intrinsic alignments can be more easily isolated for clusters than for galaxies. The signal-to-noise of cluster alignment can in general be improved by isolating close pairs along the line of sight.
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We directly constrain the non-linear alignment (NLA) model of intrinsic galaxy alignments, analysing the most representative and complete flux-limited sample of spectroscopic galaxies available for cosmic shear surveys. We measure the projected galaxy position-intrinsic shear correlations and the projected galaxy clustering signal using high-resolution imaging from the Kilo Degree Survey (KiDS) overlapping with the GAMA spectroscopic survey, and data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Separating samples by colour, we make no significant detection of blue galaxy alignments, constraining the blue galaxy NLA amplitude $A_{textrm{IA}}^{textrm{B}}=0.21^{+0.37}_{-0.36}$ to be consistent with zero. We make robust detections ($sim9sigma$) for red galaxies, with $A_{textrm{IA}}^{textrm{R}}=3.18^{+0.47}_{-0.46}$, corresponding to a net radial alignment with the galaxy density field, and we find no evidence for any scaling of alignments with galaxy luminosity. We provide informative priors for current and future weak lensing surveys, an improvement over de facto wide priors that allow for unrealistic levels of intrinsic alignment contamination. For a colour-split cosmic shear analysis of the final KiDS survey area, we forecast that our priors will improve the constraining power on $S_{8}$ and the dark energy equation of state $w_{0}$, by up to $62%$ and $51%$, respectively. Our results indicate, however, that the modelling of red/blue-split galaxy alignments may be insufficient to describe samples with variable central/satellite galaxy fractions.
We measure the alignment of the shapes of galaxy clusters, as traced by their satellite distributions, with the matter density field using the public redMaPPer catalogue based on SDSS-DR8, which contains 26 111 clusters up to z~0.6. The clusters are split into nine redshift and richness samples; in each of them we detect a positive alignment, showing that clusters point towards density peaks. We interpret the measurements within the tidal alignment paradigm, allowing for a richness and redshift dependence. The intrinsic alignment (IA) amplitude at the pivot redshift z=0.3 and pivot richness lambda=30 is A_{IA}^{gen}=12.6_{-1.2}^{+1.5}. We obtain tentative evidence that the signal increases towards higher richness and lower redshift. Our measurements agree well with results of maxBCG clusters and with dark-matter-only simulations. Comparing our results to IA measurements of luminous red galaxies, we find that the IA amplitude of galaxy clusters forms a smooth extension towards higher mass. This suggests that these systems share a common alignment mechanism, which can be exploited to improve our physical understanding of IA.
Intrinsic galaxy alignments constitute the major astrophysical systematic of forthcoming weak gravitational lensing surveys but also yield unique insights into galaxy formation and evolution. We build analytic models for the distribution of galaxy shapes based on halo properties extracted from the Millennium Simulation, differentiating between early- and late-type galaxies as well as central galaxies and satellites. The resulting ellipticity correlations are investigated for their physical properties and compared to a suite of current observations. The best-faring model is then used to predict the intrinsic alignment contamination of planned weak lensing surveys. We find that late-type galaxy models generally have weak intrinsic ellipticity correlations, marginally increasing towards smaller galaxy separation and higher redshift. The signal for early-type models at fixed halo mass strongly increases by three orders of magnitude over two decades in galaxy separation, and by one order of magnitude from z=0 to z=2. The intrinsic alignment strength also depends strongly on halo mass, but not on galaxy luminosity at fixed mass, or galaxy number density in the environment. We identify models that are in good agreement with all observational data, except that all models over-predict alignments of faint early-type galaxies. The best model yields an intrinsic alignment contamination of a Euclid-like survey between 0.5-10% at z>0.6 and on angular scales larger than a few arcminutes. Cutting 20% of red foreground galaxies using observer-frame colours can suppress this contamination by up to a factor of two.
Globular clusters (GCs) are often used to estimate the dark matter content of galaxies, especially dwarfs, where other kinematic tracers are lacking. These estimates typically assume spherical symmetry and dynamical equilibrium, assumptions that may not hold for the sparse GC population of dwarfs in galaxy clusters. We use a catalog of GCs tagged onto the Illustris simulation to study the accuracy of GC-based mass estimates. We focus on galaxies in the stellar mass range 10$^{8} - 10^{11.8}$ M$_{odot}$ identified in $9$ simulated Virgo-like clusters. Our results indicate that mass estimates are, on average, quite accurate in systems with GC numbers $N_{rm GC} geq 10$ and where the uncertainty of individual GC line-of-sight velocities is smaller than the inferred velocity dispersion, $sigma_{rm GC}$. In cases where $N_{rm GC} leq 10$, however, biases may result depending on how $sigma_{rm GC}$ is computed. We provide calibrations that may help alleviate these biases in methods widely used in the literature. As an application, we find a number of dwarfs with $M_{*} sim 10^{8.5}, M_{odot}$ (comparable to the ultradiffuse galaxy DF2, notable for the low $sigma_{GC}$ of its $10$ GCs) with $sigma_{rm GC} sim 7$ - $15; rm km rm s^{-1}$. These DF2 analogs correspond to relatively massive systems at their infall time ($M_{200} sim 1$ - $3 times 10^{11}$ $M_{odot}$) which have retained only $3$-$17$ GCs and have been stripped of more than 95$%$ of their dark matter. Our results suggest that extreme tidal mass loss in otherwise normal dwarf galaxies may be a possible formation channel for ultradiffuse objects like DF2.
Galaxy clusters can play a key role in modern cosmology provided their evolution is properly understood. However, observed clusters give us only a single timeframe of their dynamical state. Therefore, finding present observable data of clusters that are well correlated to their assembly history constitutes an inestimable tool for cosmology. Former studies correlating environmental descriptors of clusters to their formation history are dominated by halo mass - environment relations. This paper presents a mass-free correlation between the present neighbor distribution of cluster-size halos and the latter mass assembly history. From the Big Multidark simulation, we extract two large samples of random halos with masses ranging from Virgo to Coma cluster sizes. Additionally, to find the main environmental culprit for the formation history of the Virgo cluster, we compare the Virgo-size halos to 200 Virgo-like halos extracted from simulations that resemble the local Universe. The number of neighbors at different cluster-centric distances permits discriminating between clusters with different mass accretion histories. Similarly to Virgo-like halos, clusters with numerous neighbors within a distance of about 2 times their virial radius experience a transition at z~1 between an active period of mass accretion, relative to the mean, and a quiet history. On the contrary, clusters with few neighbors share an opposite trend: from passive to active assembly histories. Additionally, clusters with massive companions within about 4 times their virial radius tend to have recent active merging histories. Therefore, the radial distribution of cluster neighbors provides invaluable insights into the past history of these objects.
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