E. Rasia

Weighing simulated galaxy clusters using lensing and X-ray

Context. Measuring the mass of galaxy clusters is a key issue in cosmology. Among the methods employed to achieve this goal, the techniques based on lensing and X-ray analyses are perhaps the most widely used. However, the comparison between these mass estimates is often di cult and, in several clusters, the results apparently are inconsistent. Aims. We aim at investigating potential biases in lensing and X-ray methods to measure the cluster mass profiles. Methods. We do so by performing realistic simulations of lensing and X-ray observations that are subsequently analyzed using observational techniques. The resulting mass estimates are compared among them and with the input models. Three clusters obtained from state-of-the-art hydrodynamical simulations, each of which has been projected along three independent lines-of-sight, are used for this analysis. Results. We find that strong lensing models can be trusted over a limited region around the cluster core. Extrapolating the strong lensing mass models to outside the Einstein ring can lead to significant biases in the mass estimates , if the BCG is not modeled properly for example. Weak lensing mass measurements can be largely a ected by substructures, depending on the method implemented to convert the shear into a mass estimate. Using non-parametric methods which combine weak and strong lensing data, the projected masses within R200 can be constrained with a precision of 10%. De-projection of lensing masses increases the scatter around the true masses by more than a factor of two due to cluster triaxiality. X-ray mass measurements have much smaller scatter (about a factor of two smaller than the lensing masses) but they are generally biased low by 5 20%. This bias is entirely ascribable to bulk motions in the gas of our simulated clusters. Using the lensing and the X-ray masses as proxies for the true and the hydrostatic equilibrium masses of the simulated clusters and by averaging over the cluster sample we are able to measure the lack of hydrostatic equilibrium in the systems we have investigated. Conclusions. Although the comparison between lensing and X-ray masses may be di cult in individual systems due to triaxiality and substructures, using a large number of clusters with both lensing and X-ray observations may lead to important information about their gas physics and allow to use lensing masses to calibrate the X-ray scaling relations.

Lensing and x-ray mass estimates of clusters (simulations)

We present a comparison between weak-lensing and x-ray mass estimates of a sample of numerically simulated clusters. The sample consists of the 20 most massive objects at redshift z = 0.25 and M_vir > 5 × 10^(14) M_☉ h^(−1). They were found in a cosmological simulation of volume 1 h^(−3) Gpc^3, evolved in the framework of a WMAP-7 normalized cosmology. Each cluster has been resimulated at higher resolution and with more complex gas physics. We processed it through Skylens and X-MAS to generate optical and x-ray mock observations along three orthogonal projections. The final sample consists of 60 cluster realizations. The optical simulations include lensing effects on background sources. Standard observational tools and methods of analysis are used to recover the mass profiles of each cluster projection from the mock catalogue. The resulting mass profiles from lensing and x-ray are individually compared to the input mass distributions. Given the size of our sample, we could also investigate the dependence of the results on cluster morphology, environment, temperature inhomogeneity and mass. We confirm previous results showing that lensing masses obtained from the fit of the cluster tangential shear profiles with Navarro–Frenk–White functionals are biased low by ~5–10% with a large scatter (~10–25%). We show that scatter could be reduced by optimally selecting clusters either having regular morphology or living in substructure-poor environment. The x-ray masses are biased low by a large amount (~25–35%), evidencing the presence of both non-thermal sources of pressure in the intra-cluster medium (ICM) and temperature inhomogeneity, but they show a significantly lower scatter than weak-lensing-derived masses. The x-ray mass bias grows from the inner to the outer regions of the clusters. We find that both biases are weakly correlated with the third-order power ratio, while a stronger correlation exists with the centroid shift. Finally, the x-ray bias is strongly connected with temperature inhomogeneities. Comparison with a previous analysis of simulations leads to the conclusion that the values of x-ray mass bias from simulations are still uncertain, showing dependences on the ICM physical treatment and, possibly, on the hydrodynamical scheme adopted.

CLASH: The CONCENTRATION-MASS RELATION of GALAXY CLUSTERS

We present a new determination of the concentration–mass (c–M) relation for galaxy clusters based on our comprehensive lensing analysis of 19 X-ray selected galaxy clusters from the Cluster Lensing and Supernova Survey with Hubble (CLASH). Our sample spans a redshift range between 0.19 and 0.89. We combine weak-lensing constraints from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and from ground-based wide-field data with strong lensing constraints from HST. The results are reconstructions of the surface-mass density for all CLASH clusters on multi-scale grids. Our derivation of Navarro–Frenk–White parameters yields virial masses between 0.53 × 10^(15) M_⊙ h and 1.76 × 10^(15) M_⊙ h and the halo concentrations are distributed around c_(200c) ∼ 3.7 with a 1σ significant negative slope with cluster mass. We find an excellent 4% agreement in the median ratio of our measured concentrations for each cluster and the respective expectation from numerical simulations after accounting for the CLASH selection function based on X-ray morphology. The simulations are analyzed in two dimensions to account for possible biases in the lensing reconstructions due to projection effects. The theoretical c–M relation from our X-ray selected set of simulated clusters and the c–M relation derived directly from the CLASH data agree at the 90% confidence level.

ON THE BARYON FRACTIONS IN CLUSTERS AND GROUPS OF GALAXIES

We present the baryon fractions of 2MASS groups and clusters as a function of cluster richness using total and gas masses measured from stacked ROSAT X-ray data and stellar masses estimated from the infrared galaxy catalogs. We detect X-ray emission even in the outskirts of clusters, beyond r 200 for richness classes with X-ray temperatures above 1?keV. This enables us to more accurately determine the total gas mass in these groups and clusters. We find that the optically selected groups and clusters have flatter temperature profiles and higher stellar-to-gas mass ratios than the individually studied, X-ray bright clusters. We also find that the stellar mass in poor groups with temperatures below 1?keV is comparable to the gas mass in these systems. Combining these results with individual measurements for clusters, groups, and galaxies from the literature, we find a break in the baryon fraction at ~1?keV. Above this temperature, the baryon fraction scales with temperature as fb T 0.20?0.03. We see significantly smaller baryon fractions below this temperature and the baryon fraction of poor groups joins smoothly onto that of systems with still shallower potential wells such as normal and dwarf galaxies where the baryon fraction scales with the inferred velocity dispersion as fb ?1.6. The small scatter in the baryon fraction at any given potential well depth favors a universal baryon loss mechanism and a preheating model for the baryon loss. The scatter is, however, larger for less massive systems. Finally, we note that although the broken power-law relation can be inferred from data points in the literature alone, the consistency between the baryon fractions for poor groups and massive galaxies inspires us to fit the two categories of objects (galaxies and clusters) with one relation.

THE MUSIC OF CLASH: PREDICTIONS ON THE CONCENTRATION-MASS RELATION

We present an analysis of the MUSIC-2 N-body/hydrodynamical simulations aimed at estimating the expected concentration-mass relation for the CLASH (Cluster Lensing and Supernova Survey with Hubble) cluster sample. We study nearly 1,400 halos simulated at high spatial and mass resolution. We study the shape of both their density and surface-density profiles and fit them with a variety of radial functions, including the Navarro-Frenk-White (NFW), the generalized NFW, and the Einasto density profiles. We derive concentrations and masses from these fits. We produce simulated Chandra observations of the halos, and we use them to identify objects resembling the X-ray morphologies and masses of the clusters in the CLASH X-ray-selected sample. We also derive a concentration-mass relation for strong-lensing clusters. We find that the sample of simulated halos that resembles the X-ray morphology of the CLASH clusters is composed mainly of relaxed halos, but it also contains a significant fraction of unrelaxed systems. For such a heterogeneous sample we measure an average two-dimensional concentration that is ~11% higher than is found for the full sample of simulated halos. After accounting for projection and selection effects, the average NFW concentrations of CLASH clusters are expected to be intermediate between those predicted in three dimensions for relaxed and super-relaxed halos. Matching the simulations to the individual CLASH clusters on the basis of the X-ray morphology, we expect that the NFW concentrations recovered from the lensing analysis of the CLASH clusters are in the range [3-6], with an average value of 3.87 and a standard deviation of 0.61.

X-MAS2: Study Systematics on the ICM Metallicity Measurements

X-ray measurements of the intracluster medium metallicity are becoming more and more frequent due to the availability of powerful X-ray telescopes with excellent spatial and spectral resolutions. The information that can be extracted from measurements of the α-elements, such as oxygen, magnesium, and silicon, with respect to the iron abundance is extremely important to a better understanding of stellar formation and its evolutionary history. In this paper we investigate possible source of bias or systematic effects connected to the plasma physics when recovering metal abundances from X-ray spectra. To do this, we analyze six simulated galaxy clusters processed through the new version of our X-Ray Map Simulator (X-MAS), which allows us to create mock XMM-Newton EPIC MOS1 and MOS2 observations. By comparing the spectroscopic results inferred from the X-ray spectra to the expected values directly obtained from the original simulation, we find that (1) the iron is recovered with high accuracy for both hot (T > 3 keV) and cold (T 5 keV) the spectroscopic measurement may strongly overestimate the true value by up to a factor of 4; and (4) silicon is well recovered for all the clusters in our sample. We investigate in detail the nature of the systematic effects and biases found in performing XSPEC simulations. We conclude that they are mainly connected with the multitemperature nature of the projected observed spectra and to the intrinsic limitation of the XMM-Newton EPIC spectral resolution, which does not always allow disentangling the emission lines produced by different elements.

On the nature of hydrostatic equilibrium in galaxy clusters

In this paper we investigate the level of hydrostatic equilibrium (HE) in the intra-cluster medium of simulated galaxy clusters, extracted from state-of-the-art cosmological hydrodynamical simulations performed with the Smoothed-Particle-Hydrodynamic code GADGET-3. These simulations include several physical processes, among which stellar and AGN feedback, and have been performed with an improved version of the code that allows for a better description of hydrodynamical instabilities and gas mixing processes. Evaluating the radial balance between the gravitational and hydrodynamical forces, via the gas accelerations generated, we effectively examine the level of HE in every object of the sample, its dependence on the radial distance from the center and on the classification of the cluster in terms of either cool-coreness or dynamical state. We find an average deviation of 10-20% out to the virial radius, with no evident distinction between cool-core and non-cool-core clusters. Instead, we observe a clear separation between regular and disturbed systems, with a more significant deviation from HE for the disturbed objects. The investigation of the bias between the hydrostatic estimate and the total gravitating mass indicates that, on average, this traces very well the deviation from HE, even though individual cases show a more complex picture. Typically, in the radial ranges where mass bias and deviation from HE are substantially different, the gas is characterized by a significant amount of random motions (>~30 per cent), relative to thermal ones. As a general result, the HE-deviation and mass bias, at given interesting distance from the cluster center, are not very sensitive to the temperature inhomogeneities in the gas.

Cool core clusters from cosmological simulations

We present results obtained from a set of cosmological hydrodynamic simulations of galaxy clusters, aimed at comparing predictions with observational data on the diversity between cool-core (CC) and non-cool-core (NCC) clusters. Our simulations include the effects of stellar and AGN feedback and are based on an improved version of the smoothed particle hydrodynamics code GADGET-3, which ameliorates gas mixing and better captures gas-dynamical instabilities by including a suitable artificial thermal diffusion. In this Letter, we focus our analysis on the entropy profiles, the primary diagnostic we used to classify the degree of cool-coreness of clusters, and on the iron profiles. In keeping with observations, our simulated clusters display a variety of behaviors in entropy profiles: they range from steadily decreasing profiles at small radii, characteristic of cool-core systems, to nearly flat core isentropic profiles, characteristic of non-cool-core systems. Using observational criteria to distinguish between the two classes of objects, we find that they occur in similar proportions in both simulations and in observations. Furthermore, we also find that simulated cool-core clusters have profiles of iron abundance that are steeper than those of NCC clusters, which is also in agreement with observational results. We show that the capability of our simulations to generate a realistic cool-core structure in the cluster population is due to AGN feedback and artificial thermal diffusion: their combined action allows us to naturally distribute the energy extracted from super-massive black holes and to compensate for the radiative losses of low-entropy gas with short cooling time residing in the cluster core.

Temperature structure of the intracluster medium from smoothed-particle hydrodynamics and adaptive-mesh refinement simulations

Analyses of cosmological hydrodynamic simulations of galaxy clusters suggest that X-ray masses can be underestimated by 10% to 30%. The largest bias originates by both violation of hydrostatic equilibrium and an additional temperature bias caused by inhomogeneities in the X-ray emitting intra-cluster medium (ICM). To elucidate on this large dispersion among theoretical predictions, we evaluate the degree of temperature structures in cluster sets simulated either with smoothed-particle-hydrodynamics (SPH) and adaptive-mesh-refinement (AMR) codes. We find that the SPH simulations produce larger temperature variations connected to the persistence of both substructures and their stripped cold gas. This difference is more evident in no-radiative simulations, while it is reduced in the presence of radiative cooling. We also find that the temperature variation in radiative cluster simulations is generally in agreement with the observed one in the central regions of clusters. Around R500 the temperature inhomogeneities of the SPH simulations can generate twice the typical hydrostatic-equilibrium mass bias of the AMR sample. We emphasize that a detailed understanding of the physical processes responsible for the complex thermal structure in ICM requires improved resolution and high sensitivity observations in order to extend the analysis to higher temperature systems and larger cluster-centric radii. Subject headings: galaxies: clusters: general ‐ galaxies: clusters: intracluster medium ‐ X-rays: galaxies: clusters ‐ methods: numerical

Neutral hydrogen in galaxy clusters: impact of AGN feedback and implications for intensity mapping

By means of zoom-in hydrodynamic simulations, we quantify the amount of neutral hydrogen (H I) hosted by groups and clusters of galaxies. Our simulations, which are based on an improved formulation of smoothed particle hydrodynamics, include radiative cooling, star formation, metal enrichment and supernova feedback, and can be split into two different groups, depending on whether feedback from active galactic nuclei (AGN) is turned on or off. Simulations are analysed to account for HI self-shielding and the presence of molecular hydrogen. We find that the mass in neutral hydrogen of dark matter haloes monotonically increases with the halomass and can be well described by a power law of the form M-H I (M, z) proportional to M-3/4. Our results point out that AGN feedback reduces both the total halo mass and its HI mass, although it is more efficient in removing HI. We conclude that AGN feedback reduces the neutral hydrogen mass of a given halo by similar to 50 per cent, with a weak dependence on halo mass and redshift. The spatial distribution of neutral hydrogen within haloes is also affected by AGN feedback, whose effect is to decrease the fraction of HI that resides in the halo inner regions. By extrapolating our results to haloes not resolved in our simulations, we derive astrophysical implications from the measurements of Omega(H) (I)(z): haloes with circular velocities larger than similar to 25 km s(-1) are needed to host HI in order to reproduce observations. We find that only the model with AGN feedback is capable of reproducing the value of Omega(HI)b(HI) derived from available 21 cm intensity mapping observations.