Merging Cluster Collaboration: Optical and Spectroscopic Survey of a Radio-Selected Sample of Twenty Nine Merging Galaxy Clusters

Multi-band photometric and multi-object spectroscopic surveys of merging galaxy clusters allow for the characterization of the distributions of constituent dark matter and galaxy populations, constraints on the dynamics of the merging subclusters, and an understanding of galaxy evolution of member g...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:arXiv.org 2017-11
Main Authors: Golovich, Nathan, Dawson, William A, Wittman, David M, Jee, Myungkook J, Benson, Bryant, Lemaux, Brian, van Weeren, Reinout J, Andrade-Santos, Felipe, Sobral, David, de Gasperin, Francesco, Bruggen, Marcus, Bradac, Marusa, Finner, Kyle, Annika, Peter
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Dark matter
Deimos
Galactic clusters
Galactic evolution
Galaxies
Galaxy mergers & collisions
Photometry
Radio
Red shift
Spectroscopy
Star & galaxy formation
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Multi-band photometric and multi-object spectroscopic surveys of merging galaxy clusters allow for the characterization of the distributions of constituent dark matter and galaxy populations, constraints on the dynamics of the merging subclusters, and an understanding of galaxy evolution of member galaxies. We present deep photometric observations from Subaru/SuprimeCam and a catalog of \(\sim\)5400 spectroscopic cluster members from Keck/DEIMOS across 29 merging galaxy clusters ranging in redshift from \(z=0.07\) to \(0.55\). The ensemble is compiled based on the presence of radio relics, which highlight cluster scale collisionless shocks in the intra-cluster medium. Together with the spectroscopic and photometric information, the velocities, timescales, and geometries of the respective merging events may be tightly constrained. In this preliminary analysis, the velocity distributions of 28 of the 29 clusters are shown to be well fit by single Gaussians. This indicates that radio relic mergers largely occur transverse to the line of sight and/or near apocenter. In this paper, we present our optical and spectroscopic surveys, preliminary results, and a discussion of the value of radio relic mergers for developing accurate dynamical models of each system.
ISSN:2331-8422