Constraining the Mass of A Galaxy Cluster
Abstract
Accurate cluster masses are critical for understanding dark matter and for using clusters to constrain cosmological parameters. We use the observed surface number density profile and velocity dispersion profile of galaxies in the Coma cluster to constrain its mass profile via Jeans analysis. In particular, we evaluate the robustness of the mass estimate M_200 by using different parametric forms for the distribution of mass and galaxies as well as different models of the orbital anisotropy parameter β (r) . Allowing for variation between the scale radii of the mass profile and the galaxy profile (i.e. relaxing the assumption that galaxies trace mass) does not significantly change the estimate of M 200 . We use a Bayesian approach to construct probability distribution functions of M 200, scale radius, and beta via Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling. We apply this approach to ensemble clusters stacked by either their Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) signals or X-ray luminosities to measure the scaling relations of dynamical mass estimates with these mass proxies. Specifically, we test the hypothesis that the apparent deficit of SZ clusters (compared to predictions based on observations of the microwave background) can be explained by a bias of ∼ 60% in the normalization of the scaling relation between SZ signal and mass.
- Publication:
-
American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #229
- Pub Date:
- January 2017
- Bibcode:
- 2017AAS...22934603C