We search for the signature of cosmological shocks in stacked gas pressure profiles of galaxy clusters using data from the South Pole Telescope (SPT). Specifically, we stack the latest Compton-y maps from the 2500 deg2 SPT-SZ survey on the locations of clusters identified in that same data set. The sample contains 516 clusters with mean mass $\langle M_{\rm 200m}\rangle = 10^{14.9} \, {\rm M}_\odot$ and redshift 〈z〉 = 0.55. We analyse in parallel a set of zoom-in hydrodynamical simulations from the three hundred project. The SPT-SZ data show two features: (i) a pressure deficit at R/R200m = 1.08 ± 0.09, measured at 3.1σ significance and not observed in the simulations, and; (ii) a sharp decrease in pressure at R/R200m = 4.58 ± 1.24 at 2.0σ significance. The pressure deficit is qualitatively consistent with a shock-induced thermal non-equilibrium between electrons and ions, and the second feature is consistent with accretion shocks seen in previous studies. We split the cluster sample by redshift and mass, and find both features exist in all cases. There are also no significant differences in features along and across the cluster major axis, whose orientation roughly points towards filamentary structure. As a consistency test, we also analyse clusters from the Planck and Atacama Cosmology Telescope Polarimeter surveys and find quantitatively similar features in the pressure profiles. Finally, we compare the accretion shock radius ($R_{\rm sh,\, acc}$) with existing measurements of the splashback radius (Rsp) for SPT-SZ and constrain the lower limit of the ratio, $R_{\rm sh,\, acc}/R_{\rm sp}\gt 2.16 \pm 0.59$.
Deep XMM–Newton observations of the most distant SPT-SZ galaxy cluster
ABSTRACT We present results from a 577 ks XMM–Newton observation of SPT-CL J0459–4947, the most distant cluster detected in the South Pole Telescope 2500 square degree (SPT-SZ) survey, and currently the most distant cluster discovered through its Sunyaev–Zel’dovich effect. The data confirm the cluster’s high redshift, z = 1.71 ± 0.02, in agreement with earlier, less precise optical/IR photometric estimates. From the gas density profile, we estimate a characteristic mass of $M_{500}=(1.8\pm 0.2)\times 10^{14}\, {\rm M}_{\odot }$; cluster emission is detected above the background to a radius of $\sim \!2.2\, r_{500}$, or approximately the virial radius. The intracluster gas is characterized by an emission-weighted average temperature of 7.2 ± 0.3 keV and metallicity with respect to Solar of $Z/\, Z_{\odot }=0.37\pm 0.08$. For the first time at such high redshift, this deep data set provides a measurement of metallicity outside the cluster centre; at radii $r\gt 0.3\, r_{500}$, we find $Z/\, Z_{\odot }=0.33\pm 0.17$ in good agreement with precise measurements at similar radii in the most nearby clusters, supporting an early enrichment scenario in which the bulk of the cluster gas is enriched to a universal metallicity prior to cluster formation, with little to no evolution thereafter. The leverage provided by the high redshift of this cluster tightens by a factor of 2 constraints on evolving metallicity models, when combined with previous measurements at lower redshifts.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1852617
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10165835
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Volume:
- 496
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 0035-8711
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1554 to 1564
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
-
Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staa1581
