A detection of wobbling brightest cluster galaxies within massive galaxy clusters

Abstract A striking signal of dark matter beyond the standard model is the existence of cores in the centre of galaxy clusters. Recent simulations predict that a brightest cluster galaxy (BCG) inside a cored galaxy cluster will exhibit residual wobbling due to previous major mergers, long after the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 2017-12, Vol.472 (2), p.1972-1980
Main Authors: Harvey, David, Courbin, F., Kneib, J. P., McCarthy, Ian G.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Astrophysics
Physics
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Summary:Abstract A striking signal of dark matter beyond the standard model is the existence of cores in the centre of galaxy clusters. Recent simulations predict that a brightest cluster galaxy (BCG) inside a cored galaxy cluster will exhibit residual wobbling due to previous major mergers, long after the relaxation of the overall cluster. This phenomenon is absent with standard cold dark matter where a cuspy density profile keeps a BCG tightly bound at the centre. We test this hypothesis using cosmological simulations and deep observations of 10 galaxy clusters acting as strong gravitational lenses. Modelling the BCG wobble as a simple harmonic oscillator, we measure the wobble amplitude, Aw, in the BAHAMAS suite of cosmological hydrodynamical simulations, finding an upper limit for the cold dark matter paradigm of Aw 
ISSN:0035-8711
1365-2966
DOI:10.1093/mnras/stx2084