No Arabic abstract
We study the systematic bias introduced when selecting the spectroscopic redshifts of brighter cluster galaxies to estimate the velocity dispersion of galaxy clusters from both simulated and observational galaxy catalogues. We select clusters with Ngal > 50 at five low redshift snapshots from a semi-analytic model galaxy catalogue, and from a catalogue of SDSS DR8 groups and clusters across the redshift range 0.021<z<0.098. We employ various selection techniques to explore whether the velocity dispersion bias is simply due to a lack of dynamical information or is the result of an underlying physical process occurring in the cluster, for example, dynamical friction. The velocity dispersions and stacked particle velocity distributions of the parent dark matter (DM) halos are compared to the corresponding cluster dispersions and galaxy velocity distribution. We find a clear bias between the halo and the semi-analytic galaxy cluster velocity dispersion on the order of sigma gal / sigma DM = 0.87-0.95 and a distinct difference in the stacked galaxy and DM particle velocity distribution. We identify a systematic underestimation of the velocity dispersions when imposing increasing absolute I-band magnitude limits. This underestimation is enhanced when using only the brighter cluster members for dynamical analysis on the order of 5-35%, indicating that dynamical friction is a serious source of bias when using galaxy velocities as tracers of the underlying gravitational potential. In contrast to the literature we find that the resulting bias is not only halo mass-dependent but that the nature of the dependence changes according to the galaxy selection strategy. We make a recommendation that, in the realistic case of limited availability of spectral observations, a strictly magnitude-limited sample should be avoided to ensure an unbiased estimate of the velocity dispersion.
We present optical spectroscopy of galaxies in clusters detected through the Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) effect with the South Pole Telescope (SPT). We report our own measurements of $61$ spectroscopic cluster redshifts, and $48$ velocity dispersions each calculated with more than $15$ member galaxies. This catalog also includes $19$ dispersions of SPT-observed clusters previously reported in the literature. The majority of the clusters in this paper are SPT-discovered; of these, most have been previously reported in other SPT cluster catalogs, and five are reported here as SPT discoveries for the first time. By performing a resampling analysis of galaxy velocities, we find that unbiased velocity dispersions can be obtained from a relatively small number of member galaxies ($lesssim 30$), but with increased systematic scatter. We use this analysis to determine statistical confidence intervals that include the effect of membership selection. We fit scaling relations between the observed cluster velocity dispersions and mass estimates from SZ and X-ray observables. In both cases, the results are consistent with the scaling relation between velocity dispersion and mass expected from dark-matter simulations. We measure a $sim$30% log-normal scatter in dispersion at fixed mass, and a $sim$10% offset in the normalization of the dispersion-mass relation when compared to the expectation from simulations, which is within the expected level of systematic uncertainty.
If the formation of central galaxies in dark matter haloes traces the assembly history of their host haloes, in haloes of fixed mass, central galaxy clustering may show dependence on properties indicating their formation history. Such a galaxy assembly bias effect has been investigated by Lin et al. 2016, with samples of central galaxies constructed in haloes of similar mass and with mean halo mass verified by galaxy lensing measurements, and no significant evidence of assembly bias is found from the analysis of the projected two-point correlation functions of early- and late-forming central galaxies. In this work, we extend the the investigation of assembly bias effect from real space to redshift (velocity) space, with an extended construction of early- and late-forming galaxies. We carry out halo occupation distribution modelling to constrain the galaxy-halo connection to see whether there is any sign of the effect of assembly bias. We find largely consistent host halo mass for early- and late-forming central galaxies, corroborated by lensing measurements. The central velocity bias parameters, which are supposed to characterise the mutual relaxation between central galaxies and their host haloes, are inferred to overlap between early- and late-forming central galaxies. However, we find a large amplitude of velocity bias for early-forming central galaxies (e.g. with central galaxies moving at more than 50% that of dark matter velocity dispersion inside host haloes), which may signal an assembly bias effect. A large sample with two-point correlation functions and other clustering measurements and improved modelling will help reach a conclusive result.
We present Gemini and Keck spectroscopic redshifts and velocity dispersions for twenty clusters detected via the Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) effect by the Planck space mission, with estimated masses in the range $2.3 times 10^{14} M_{odot} < M < 9.4 times 10^{14} M_{odot}$. Cluster members were selected for spectroscopic follow-up with Palomar, Gemini and Keck optical and (in some cases) infrared imaging. Seven cluster redshifts were measured for the first time with this observing campaign, including one of the most distant Planck clusters confirmed to date, at $z=0.782pm0.010$, PSZ2 G085.95+25.23. The spectroscopic redshift catalogs of members of each confirmed cluster are included as on-line tables. We show the galaxy redshift distributions and measure the cluster velocity dispersions. The cluster velocity dispersions obtained in this paper were used in a companion paper to measure the Planck mass bias and to constrain the cluster velocity bias.
We present a new approach for quantifying the abundance of galaxy clusters and constraining cosmological parameters using dynamical measurements. In the standard method, galaxy line-of-sight (LOS) velocities, $v$, or velocity dispersions are used to infer cluster masses, $M$, in order to quantify the halo mass function (HMF), $dn(M)/dlog(M)$, which is strongly affected by mass measurement errors. In our new method, the probability distribution of velocities for each cluster in the sample are summed to create a new statistic called the velocity distribution function (VDF), $dn(v)/dv$. The VDF can be measured more directly and precisely than the HMF and it can also be robustly predicted with cosmological simulations which capture the dynamics of subhalos or galaxies. We apply these two methods to mock cluster catalogs and forecast the bias and constraints on the matter density parameter $Omega_m$ and the amplitude of matter fluctuations $sigma_8$ in flat $Lambda$CDM cosmologies. For an example observation of 200 massive clusters, the VDF with (without) velocity errors constrains the parameter combination $sigma_8Omega_m^{0.29 (0.29)} = 0.587 pm 0.011 (0.583 pm 0.011)$ and shows only minor bias. However, the HMF with dynamical mass errors is biased to low $Omega_m$ and high $sigma_8$ and the fiducial model lies well outside of the forecast constraints, prior to accounting for Eddington bias. When the VDF is combined with constraints from the cosmic microwave background (CMB), the degeneracy between cosmological parameters can be significantly reduced. Upcoming spectroscopic surveys that probe larger volumes and fainter magnitudes will provide a larger number of clusters for applying the VDF as a cosmological probe.
We measure the velocity dispersions of clusters of galaxies selected by the redMaPPer algorithm in the first three years of data from the Dark Energy Survey (DES), allowing us to probe cluster selection and richness estimation, $lambda$, in light of cluster dynamics. Our sample consists of 126 clusters with sufficient spectroscopy for individual velocity dispersion estimates. We examine the correlations between cluster velocity dispersion, richness, X-ray temperature and luminosity as well as central galaxy velocity offsets. The velocity dispersion-richness relation exhibits a bimodal distribution. The majority of clusters follow scaling relations between velocity dispersion, richness, and X-ray properties similar to those found for previous samples; however, there is a significant population of clusters with velocity dispersions which are high for their richness. These clusters account for roughly 20% of the $lambda < 70$ systems in our sample, but more than half of $lambda < 70$ clusters at $z>0.5$. A couple of these systems are hot and X-ray bright as expected for massive clusters with richnesses that appear to have been underestimated, but most appear to have high velocity dispersions for their X-ray properties likely due to line-of-sight structure. These results suggest that projection effects contribute significantly to redMaPPer selection, particularly at higher redshifts and lower richnesses. The redMaPPer determined richnesses for the velocity dispersion outliers are consistent with their X-ray properties, but several are X-ray undetected and deeper data is needed to understand their nature.