Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Galaxy Cluster Mass Reconstruction Project – IV. Understanding the effects of imperfect membership on cluster mass estimation

Wojtak, R.; Old, L.; Mamon, G.A.; Pearce, frF.R.; de Carvalho, R.; Sifón, C.; Gray, M.E.; Skibba, R.A.; Croton, D.; Bamford, Steven; Gifford, D.; von der Linden, A.; Muñoz-Cuartas, J.C.; Müller, V.; Pearson, R.J.; Rozo, E.; Rykoff, E.; Saro, A.; Sepp, T.; Tempel, E.

Galaxy Cluster Mass Reconstruction Project – IV. Understanding the effects of imperfect membership on cluster mass estimation Thumbnail


Authors

R. Wojtak

L. Old

G.A. Mamon

R. de Carvalho

C. Sifón

MEGHAN GRAY MEGHAN.GRAY@NOTTINGHAM.AC.UK
Professor of Astronomy

R.A. Skibba

D. Croton

D. Gifford

A. von der Linden

J.C. Muñoz-Cuartas

V. Müller

R.J. Pearson

E. Rozo

E. Rykoff

A. Saro

T. Sepp

E. Tempel



Abstract

The primary difficulty in measuring dynamical masses of galaxy clusters from galaxy data lies in the separation between true cluster members from interloping galaxies along the line of sight. We study the impact of membership contamination and incompleteness on cluster mass estimates obtained with 25 commonly used techniques applied to nearly 1000 mock clusters with precise spectroscopic redshifts. We show that all methods overestimate or underestimate cluster masses when applied to contaminated or incomplete galaxy samples, respectively. This appears to be the main source of the intrinsic scatter in the mass scaling relation. Applying corrections based on a prior knowledge of contamination and incompleteness can reduce the scatter to the level of shot noise expected for poorly sampled clusters. We establish an empirical model quantifying the effect of imperfect membership on cluster mass estimation and discuss its universal and method-dependent features. We find that both imperfect membership and the response of the mass estimators depend on cluster mass, effectively causing a flattening of the estimated–true mass relation. Imperfect membership thus alters cluster counts determined from spectroscopic surveys, hence the cosmological parameters that depend on such counts.

Citation

Wojtak, R., Old, L., Mamon, G., Pearce, F., de Carvalho, R., Sifón, C., …Tempel, E. (2018). Galaxy Cluster Mass Reconstruction Project – IV. Understanding the effects of imperfect membership on cluster mass estimation. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 481(1), 324-340. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/sty2257

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Aug 15, 2018
Online Publication Date Aug 18, 2018
Publication Date Nov 21, 2018
Deposit Date Sep 27, 2018
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Print ISSN 0035-8711
Electronic ISSN 1365-2966
Publisher Oxford University Press
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 481
Issue 1
Pages 324-340
DOI https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/sty2257
Keywords methods: numerical, methods: statistical, galaxies: clusters: general, galaxies: haloes, galaxies: kinematics and dynamics, cosmology: observations
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1137630
Publisher URL https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/481/1/324/5076075
Additional Information This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society © 2018 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.

Files

Galaxy Cluster Mass Reconstruction Project – IV. Understanding the effects of imperfect membership on cluster mass estimation (1.8 Mb)
PDF




You might also like



Downloadable Citations