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Register a new userDiffuse stellar emission in X-ray luminous galaxy clusters at z~0.3 I. Is the diffuse optical light boosted and rejuvenated in merging clusters?
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D. Pierini
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[Abridged] We searched for diffuse stellar emission around BCGs in three of the most X-ray luminous clusters found at z~0.3 in the REFLEX cluster survey and observed with XMM-Newton. These systems (RXCJ0014.3-3022, RXCJ0232.2-4420, and RXCJ2308.3-0211) are in different dynamical states, as witnessed by their X-ray morphology and optical appearence (e.g. multiplicity of BCGs). [Abridged] Diffuse stellar emission is robustly detected down to a surface brightness of 26 R-mag/arcsec^2 (observed frame) around a total of seven BCGs, extending up to galactocentric distances of ~100 kpc. In particular, it surrounds a pair of BCGs in RXCJ0232.2-4420, while it bridges two BCGs associated with the minor subcomponent of the merging cluster RXCJ0014.3-3022. The diffuse light detected at the greatest distances from the BCGs of the rather regular clusters RXCJ0232.2-4420 and RXCJ2308.3-0211 follows the ICM distribution. Its B-R colour is consistent with the colours measured within the BCG effective radii. The diffuse light around the two pairs of BCGs in RXCJ0014.3-3022 exhibits bluer colours than the BCG central regions by up to 0.5 mag. If the contribution of the intracluster light (ICL) to the detected diffuse light around BCGs is not negligible, ICL and BCGs have similar stellar populations in relatively relaxed clusters. Merging on a cluster scale eventually adds gravitational stresses to BCGs and other galaxies in subcluster cores. This event may affect the properties of the diffuse stellar emission around BCGs. Shredding of star-forming, low-metallicity dwarf galaxies is favoured as the cause of the bluer B-R colours of the diffuse stellar component around the two pairs of BCGs in the merging cluster RXCJ0014.3-3022.
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Diffuse intracluster light (ICL) has now been observed in nearby and in intermediate redshift clusters. Individual intracluster stars have been detected in the Virgo and Coma clusters and the first color-magnitude diagram and velocity measurements have been obtained. Recent studies show that the ICL contains of the order of 10% and perhaps up to 30% of the stellar mass in the cluster, but in the cores of some dense and rich clusters like Coma, the local ICL fraction can be high as 40%-50%. What can we learn from the ICL about the formation of galaxy clusters and the evolution of cluster galaxies? How and when did the ICL form? What is the connection to the central brightest cluster galaxy? Cosmological N-body and hydrodynamical simulations are beginning to make predictions for the kinematics and origin of the ICL. The ICL traces the evolution of baryonic substructures in dense environments and can thus be used to constrain some aspects of cosmological simulations that are most uncertain, such as the modeling of star formation and the mass distribution of the baryonic component in galaxies.
Using N-body simulations, we have modeled the production and evolution of low surface brightness, diffuse intra-cluster light (ICL) in galaxy clusters. By creating simulated observations of the clusters we have measured the evolution of the ICL luminosity throughout the dynamical history of the clusters. We find that ICL production tends to occur in short, discrete events, which correlate very strongly with strong, small-scale interactions and accretions between groups within the clusters.
In a growing number of galaxy clusters diffuse extended radio sources have been found. These sources are not directly associated with individual cluster galaxies. The radio emission reveal the presence of cosmic rays and magnetic fields in the intracluster medium (ICM). We classify diffuse cluster radio sources into radio halos, cluster radio shocks (relics), and revived AGN fossil plasma sources. Radio halo sources can be further divided into giant halos, mini-halos, and possible `intermediate sources. Halos are generally positioned at cluster center and their brightness approximately follows the distribution of the thermal ICM. Cluster radio shocks (relics) are polarized sources mostly found in the clusters periphery. They trace merger induced shock waves. Revived fossil plasma sources are characterized by their radio steep-spectra and often irregular morphologies. In this review we give an overview of the properties of diffuse cluster radio sources, with an emphasis on recent observational results. We discuss the resulting implications for the underlying physical acceleration processes that operate in the ICM, the role of relativistic fossil plasma, and the properties of ICM shocks and magnetic fields. We also compile an updated list of diffuse cluster radio sources which will be available on-line http://galaxyclusters.com. We end this review with a discussion on the detection of diffuse radio emission from the cosmic web.
The current paradigm of cosmic formation and evolution of galaxy clusters foresees growth mostly through merging. Galaxies in the infall region or in the core of a cluster undergo transformations owing to different environmental stresses. For two X-ray luminous clusters at redshift z ~ 0.3 with opposite X-ray morphologies, RXCJ0014.3-3022 and RXCJ2308.3-0211, we assess differences in galaxy populations as a function of cluster topography. Cluster large-scale structure and substructure are determined from the combined photometry in the B, V, and R bands, and from multi-object optical spectroscopy at low resolution. A spectral index analysis is performed, based on the [OII] and Hdelta features, and the D4000 break, available for more than 100 member galaxies per cluster. Combination of spectral indices and FUV-optical colours provides a picture of the star formation history in galaxies. In spite of the potential presence of a small fraction of galaxies with obscured star formation activity, the average star-formation history of cluster members is found to depend on cluster-centric distance and on substructure. There is a sharp increase in star formation activity along two well-defined filamentary structures of the merging cluster RXCJ0014.3-3022, out to its virial radius and beyond, produced by luminous (L ~ L*) and sub-L* galaxies. Conversely, the regular cool-core cluster RXCJ2308.3-0211 mostly hosts galaxies which either populate the red sequence or are becoming passive. These results suggest the existence of a correspondence between assembly state and overall age of the stellar populations of galaxies inside the virialized region and in the surrounding large scale structure of massive clusters at z ~ 0.3. (Abridged)
Galaxy clusters trace the highest density peaks in the large-scale structure of the Universe. Their clustering provides a powerful probe that can be exploited in combination with cluster mass measurements to strengthen the cosmological constraints provided by cluster number counts. We investigate the spatial properties of a homogeneous sample of X-ray selected galaxy clusters from the XXL survey, the largest programme carried out by the XMM-Newton satellite. The measurements are compared to $Lambda$-cold dark matter predictions, and used in combination with self-calibrated mass scaling relations to constrain the effective bias of the sample, $b_{eff}$, and the matter density contrast, $Omega_{rm M}$. We measured the angle-averaged two-point correlation function of the XXL cluster sample. The analysed catalogue consists of $182$ X-ray selected clusters from the XXL second data release, with median redshift $langle z rangle=0.317$ and median mass $langle M_{500} ranglesimeq1.3cdot10^{14} M_odot$. A Markov chain Monte Carlo analysis is performed to extract cosmological constraints using a likelihood function constructed to be independent of the cluster selection function. Modelling the redshift-space clustering in the scale range $10<r,[$Mpch$]<40$, we obtain $Omega_{rm M}=0.27_{-0.04}^{+0.06}$ and $b_{eff}=2.73_{-0.20}^{+0.18}$. This is the first time the two-point correlation function of an X-ray selected cluster catalogue at such relatively high redshifts and low masses has been measured. The XXL cluster clustering appears fully consistent with standard cosmological predictions. The analysis presented in this work demonstrates the feasibility of a cosmological exploitation of the XXL cluster clustering, paving the way for a combined analysis of XXL cluster number counts and clustering.
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