No Arabic abstract
We present an investigation of the effects of asphericity on the estimates of total mass and gas mass fraction in galaxy clusters from X-ray observations. We model the aspherical shape of galaxy clusters by a triaxial model and compare the true total mass and the true total gas mass fraction with the corresponding quantities obtained with the assumption of spherical symmetry. In the triaxial model we allow the extent along the line of sight to vary in order to describe elongated and compressed cluster shapes. Using a sample of 10 ROSAT clusters and a recent CHANDRA observation we find the following results. For prolate or oblate shapes the difference between triaxial and spherical model both in the mass and in the gas mass fraction are negligible (less than 3 %). For more aspherical shapes the total mass is underestimated (overestimated) in the centre, if the cluster is compressed (elongated). The gas mass fraction is overestimated for compressed clusters and slightly underestimated for elongated clusters. Comparing X-ray masses with gravitational lensing estimates, we find that elongations along the line of sight can resolve discrepancies of masses determined by the two different methods of up to ~30 %. The combination of Sunyaev-Zeldovich and X-ray observations is useful to measure the elongation of the cluster along the line of sight. As an application, we estimate the elongation of the cluster CL0016+16 with two different approaches, Sunyaev-Zeldovich measurements and comparison of weak lensing and X-ray masses, and find reasonable agreement.
There exist discrepancies in measurements of the number and evolution of galaxy pairs. The pair fraction appears to be sensitive to both the criteria used to select pair fraction and the methods used to analyze survey data. This paper explores the connection between stellar mass estimation and the pair fraction of galaxies making use of STEEL, the Statistical sEmi-Emprical modeL. Previous results have found the pair fraction is sensitive to choices made when selecting what qualifies as a pair, for example luminosity or stellar mass selections. We find that different estimations of stellar mass such as photometric choice mass-to-light ratio or IMF that effect the stellar mass function also significantly affect the derived galaxy pair fraction. By making use of the galaxy halo connection we investigate these systematic affects on the pair fraction. We constrain the galaxy halo connection using the stellar-mass-halo-mass relationship for two observed stellar mass functions, and the Illustris TNG stellar mass function. Furthermore, we also create a suite of toy models where the stellar-mass-halo-mass relationship is manually changed. For each stellar-mass-halo-mass relation the pair fraction, and its evolution, are generated. We find that enhancements to the number density of high mass galaxies cause steepening of the stellar-mass-halo mass relation, resulting in a reduction of the pair fraction. We argue this is a considerable cause of bias that must be accounted for when comparing pair fractions.
We employ a large sample of 20171 optically-selected groups and clusters at 0.15 < z < 0.4 in the SDSS to investigate how the stacked stellar mass fraction varies across a wide range of total mass, $M_{500}$. Our study improves upon previous observational studies in a number of important ways, including having a much larger sample size, an explicit inclusion of the intracluster light (ICL) component, and a thorough examination of the accuracy of our total mass estimates via comparisons to simulations and weak lensing observations. We find that the stellar mass fraction depends only weakly on total mass and that the contribution of ICL to the total stellar mass fraction is significant (typically 20-40 per cent). Both of these findings are in excellent accordance with the predictions of cosmological simulations. Under the assumption of a Chabrier (Salpeter) IMF, the derived star formation efficiency ($f_{star}$/$f_{b}$, where $f_b=Omega_b/Omega_m$) is relatively low at 8 per cent (14 per cent) and is consistent with the global star formation efficiency of semi-analytic models that reproduce the galaxy stellar mass function. When our measured stellar mass fractions are combined with the observed relation between hot gas mass fraction and total mass from X-ray observations, our results imply that galaxy groups have significantly lower baryon fractions than massive clusters. Ejection of gas due to energetic AGN feedback (most likely at high redshift) provides a plausible mechanism for explaining the trends we observe.
We investigate the rms peculiar velocity of galaxy clusters in the Lambda cold dark matter ($Lambda$CDM) and tau cold dark matter ($tau$CDM) cosmological models using N-body simulations. Cluster velocities for different cluster masses and radii are examined. To identify clusters in the simulations we use two methods: the standard friends-of-friends (FOF) method and the method, where the clusters are defined as the maxima of the density field smoothed on the scale $Rsim 1h^{-1}$ Mpc (DENSMAX). If we use the DENSMAX method, the size of the selected clusters is similar for all clusters. We find that the rms velocity of clusters defined with the DENSMAX method is almost independent of the cluster density and similar to the linear theory expectations. The rms velocity of FOF clusters decreases with the cluster mass and radius. In the $Lambda$CDM model, the rms peculiar velocity of massive clusters with an intercluster separation $d_{cl}=50h^{-1}$ Mpc is $approx$15% smaller than the rms velocity of the clusters with a separation $d_{cl}=10h^{-1}$Mpc.
We present a parametric analysis of the intracluster medium and gravitating mass distribution of a statistical sample of 20 galaxy clusters using the phenomenological cluster model of Ascasibar and Diego. We describe an effective scheme for the estimation of errors on model parameters and derived quantities using bootstrap resampling. We find that the model provides a good description of the data in all cases and we quantify the mean fractional intrinsic scatter about the best-fit density and temperature profiles, finding this to have median values across the sample of 2 and 5 per cent, respectively. In addition, we demonstrate good agreement between r500 determined directly from the model and that estimated from a core-excluded global spectrum. We compare cool core and non-cool core clusters in terms of the logarithmic slopes of their gas density and temperature profiles and the distribution of model parameters and conclude that the two categories are clearly separable. In particular, we confirm the effectiveness of the logarithmic gradient of the gas density profile measured at 0.04 r500 in differentiating between the two types of cluster.
Magnetic fields have been observed in galaxy clusters with strengths of the order of $sim mu$G. The non-thermal pressure exerted by magnetic fields also contributes to the total pressure in galaxy clusters and can in turn affect the estimates of the gas mass fraction, $f_{gas}$. In this paper, we have considered a central magnetic field strength of $5mu$G, motivated by observations and simulations of galaxy clusters. The profile of the magnetic field has also been taken from the results obtained from simulations and observations. The role of magnetic field has been taken into account in inferring the gas density distribution through the hydrostatic equilibrium condition (HSE) by including the magnetic pressure. We have found that the resultant gas mass fraction is smaller with magnetic field as compared to that without magnetic field. However, this decrease is dependent on the strength and the profile of the magnetic field. We have also determined the total mass using the NFW profile to check for the dependency of $f_{gas}$ estimates on total mass estimators. From our analysis, we conclude that for the magnetic field strength that galaxy clusters seem to possess, the non-thermal pressure from magnetic fields has an impact of $approx 1~%$ on the gas mass fraction of galaxy clusters. However, with upcoming facilities like Square Kilometre Array (SKA), it can be further expected to improve with more precise observations of the magnetic field strength and profile in galaxy clusters, particularly in the interior region.