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Creators/Authors contains: "Montes, Mireia"

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  1. Abstract The Local Volume Complete Cluster Survey is an ongoing program to observe nearly a hundred low-redshift X-ray-luminous galaxy clusters (redshifts 0.03 <z< 0.12 and X-ray luminosities in the 0.1–2.4 keV bandLX500c> 1044erg s−1) with the Dark Energy Camera, capturing data in theu,g,r,i,zbands with a 5σpoint source depth of approximately 25th–26th AB magnitudes. Here, we map the aperture masses in 58 galaxy cluster fields using weak gravitational lensing. These clusters span a variety of dynamical states, from nearly relaxed to merging systems, and approximately half of them have not been subject to detailed weak lensing analysis before. In each cluster field, we analyze the alignment between the 2D mass distribution described by the aperture mass map, the 2D red-sequence (RS) galaxy distribution, and the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG). We find that the orientations of the BCG and the RS distribution are strongly aligned throughout the interiors of the clusters: the median misalignment angle is 19° within 2 Mpc. We also observe the alignment between the orientations of the RS distribution and the overall cluster mass distribution (by a median difference of 32° within 1 Mpc), although this is constrained by galaxy shape noise and the limitations of our cluster sample size. These types of alignment suggest long-term dynamical evolution within the clusters over cosmic timescales. 
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  2. null (Ed.)
    ABSTRACT We present an analysis of the intracluster light (ICL) in the Frontier Field Cluster MACS J1149.5+2223 (z = 0.544), which combines new and archival Hubble WFC3/IR imaging to provide continuous radial coverage out to 2.8 Mpc from the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG). Employing careful treatment of potential systematic biases and using data at the largest radii to determine the background sky level, we reconstruct the surface brightness profile out to a radius of 2 Mpc. This radius is the largest to which the ICL has been measured for an individual cluster. Within this radius, we measure a total luminosity of 1.5 × 1013 L⊙ for the BCG plus ICL. From the profile and its logarithmic slope, we identify the transition from the BCG to ICL at r ∼ 70 kpc. Remarkably, we also detect an apparent inflection in the profile centred in the 1.2–1.7 Mpc (0.37–0.52 r200m) radial bin, a signature of an infall caustic in the stellar distribution. Based upon the shape and strength of the feature, we interpret it as potentially being at the splashback radius, although the radius is smaller than theoretical predictions. If this is the splashback radius, then it is the first such detection in the ICL and the first detection of the splashback radius for an individual cluster. Similar analyses should be possible with the other Frontier Field clusters, and eventually with clusters observed by the Euclid and Roman missions. 
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  3. Abstract We present the Local Volume Complete Cluster Survey (LoVoCCS; we pronounce it as “low-vox” or “law-vox,” with stress on the second syllable), an NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory survey program that uses the Dark Energy Camera to map the dark matter distribution and galaxy population in 107 nearby (0.03 <z< 0.12) X-ray luminous ([0.1–2.4 keV]LX500> 1044erg s−1) galaxy clusters that are not obscured by the Milky Way. The survey will reach Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) Year 1–2 depth (for galaxiesr= 24.5,i= 24.0, signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) > 20;u= 24.7,g= 25.3,z= 23.8, S/N > 10) and conclude in ∼2023 (coincident with the beginning of LSST science operations), and will serve as a zeroth-year template for LSST transient studies. We process the data using the LSST Science Pipelines that include state-of-the-art algorithms and analyze the results using our own pipelines, and therefore the catalogs and analysis tools will be compatible with the LSST. We demonstrate the use and performance of our pipeline using three X-ray luminous and observation-time complete LoVoCCS clusters: A3911, A3921, and A85. A3911 and A3921 have not been well studied previously by weak lensing, and we obtain similar lensing analysis results for A85 to previous studies. (We mainly use A3911 to show our pipeline and give more examples in the Appendix.) 
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