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  1. Abstract The hot plasma in galaxy clusters, the intracluster medium, is expected to be shaped by subsonic turbulent motions, which are key for heating, cooling, and transport mechanisms. The turbulent motions contribute to the nonthermal pressure, which, if not accounted for, consequently imparts a hydrostatic mass bias. Accessing information about turbulent motions is thus of major astrophysical and cosmological interest. Characteristics of turbulent motions can be indirectly accessed through surface brightness fluctuations. This study expands on our pilot investigations of surface brightness fluctuations in the Sunyaev–Zel’dovich and in X-ray data by examining, for the first time, a large sample of 60 clusters using both SPT-SZ and XMM-Newton data and spans the redshift range 0.2 < z < 1.5, thus constraining the respective pressure and density fluctuations within 0.6R500. We deem density fluctuations to be of sufficient quality for 32 clusters, finding mild correlations between the peak of the amplitude spectra of density fluctuations and various dynamical parameters. We infer turbulent velocities from density fluctuations with an average Mach number M 3D =0.52±0.14 , in agreement with numerical simulations. For clusters with inferred turbulent Mach numbers from fluctuations in both pressure, M P , and density, Mρ , we find broad agreement between M P and Mρ . Our results suggest either a bimodal or a skewed unimodal Mach number distribution, with the majority of clusters being turbulence-dominated (subsonic) while the remainder are shock-dominated (supersonic). 
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  2. Abstract We present joint South Pole Telescope and XMM-Newton observations of eight massive galaxy clusters (0.8–2 × 1015M) spanning a redshift range of 0.16–0.35. Employing a novel Sunyaev–Zel’dovich + X-ray fitting technique, we effectively constrain the thermodynamic properties of these clusters out to the virial radius. The resulting best-fit electron density, deprojected temperature, and deprojected pressure profiles are in good agreement with previous observations of massive clusters. For the majority of the cluster sample (five out of eight clusters), the entropy profiles exhibit a self-similar behavior near the virial radius. We further derive hydrostatic mass, gas mass, and gas fraction profiles for all clusters up to the virial radius. Comparing the enclosed gas fraction profiles with the universal gas fraction profile, we obtain nonthermal pressure fraction profiles for our cluster sample at  >0.5R500, demonstrating a steeper increase betweenR500andR200that is consistent with the hydrodynamical simulations. Our analysis yields nonthermal pressure fraction ranges of 8%–28% (median: 15% ± 11%) atR500and 21%–35% (median: 27% ± 12%) atR200. Notably, weak-lensing mass measurements are available for only four clusters in our sample, and our recovered total cluster masses, after accounting for nonthermal pressure, are consistent with these measurements. 
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  3. Zmuidzinas, Jonas; Gao, Jian-Rong (Ed.)
  4. Roberts, Scott; Egner, Sébastien E (Ed.)
  5. Abstract We present a multiwavelength analysis of the galaxy cluster SPT-CL J0607-4448 (SPT0607), which is one of the most distant clusters discovered by the South Pole Telescope at z = 1.4010 ± 0.0028. The high-redshift cluster shows clear signs of being relaxed with well-regulated feedback from the active galactic nucleus (AGN) in the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG). Using Chandra X-ray data, we construct thermodynamic profiles and determine the properties of the intracluster medium. The cool-core nature of the cluster is supported by a centrally peaked density profile and low central entropy ( K 0 = 18 − 9 + 11 keV cm 2 ), which we estimate assuming an isothermal temperature profile due to the limited spectral information given the distance to the cluster. Using the density profile and gas cooling time inferred from the X-ray data, we find a mass-cooling rate M ̇ cool = 100 − 60 + 90 M ⊙ yr −1 . From optical spectroscopy and photometry around the [O ii ] emission line, we estimate that the BCG star formation rate is SFR [ O II ] = 1.7 − 0.6 + 1.0 M ⊙ yr −1 , roughly two orders of magnitude lower than the predicted mass-cooling rate. In addition, using ATCA radio data at 2.1 GHz, we measure a radio jet power P cav = 3.2 − 1.3 + 2.1 × 10 44 erg s −1 , which is consistent with the X-ray cooling luminosity ( L cool = 1.9 − 0.5 + 0.2 × 10 44 erg s −1 within r cool = 43 kpc). These findings suggest that SPT0607 is a relaxed, cool-core cluster with AGN-regulated cooling at an epoch shortly after cluster formation, implying that the balance between cooling and feedback can be reached quickly. We discuss the implications for these findings on the evolution of AGN feedback in galaxy clusters. 
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  6. We present the tightest cosmic microwave background (CMB) lensing constraints to date on the growth of structure by combining CMB lensing measurements from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT), the South Pole Telescope (SPT) and \textit{Planck}. Each of these surveys individually provides lensing measurements with similarly high statistical power, achieving signal-to-noise ratios of approximately 40. The combined lensing bandpowers represent the most precise CMB lensing power spectrum measurement to date with a signal-to-noise ratio of 61 and an amplitude of Areconlens=1.025±0.017 with respect to the theory prediction from the best-fit CMB \textit{Planck}-ACT cosmology. The bandpowers from all three lensing datasets, analyzed jointly, yield a 1.6% measurement of the parameter combination SCMBL8≡σ8(Ωm/0.3)0.25=0.825+0.015−0.013. Including Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) data improves the constraint on the amplitude of matter fluctuations to σ8=0.829±0.009 (a 1.1% determination). When combining with uncalibrated supernovae from \texttt{Pantheon+}, we present a 4% sound-horizon-independent estimate of H0=66.4±2.5kms−1Mpc−1. The joint lensing constraints on structure growth and present-day Hubble rate are fully consistent with a ΛCDM model fit to the primary CMB data from \textit{Planck} and ACT. While the precise upper limit is sensitive to the choice of data and underlying model assumptions, when varying the neutrino mass sum within the ΛCDM cosmological model, the combination of primary CMB, BAO and CMB lensing drives the probable upper limit for the mass sum towards lower values, comparable to the minimum mass prior required by neutrino oscillation experiments. 
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    Free, publicly-accessible full text available January 14, 2027
  7. In very-long baseline interferometric arrays, nearly co-located stations probe the largest scales and typically cannot resolve the observed source. In the absence of a large-scale structure, closure phases constructed with these stations are zero and, since they are independent of station-based errors, they can be used to probe data issues. Here, we show how these trivial closure phases become nonzero with a brightness distribution on smaller scales than their short baseline would suggest. When applied to sources that are made up of a bright compact and large-scale diffuse component, the trivial closure phases directly measure the centroid relative to the compact source and higher-order image moments. We present a technique to measure these image moments with minimal model assumptions and validate it on synthetic Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) data. We then apply this technique to 2017 and 2018 EHT observations of M87*and find a weak preference for extended emission in the direction of the large-scale jet. We also apply it to 2021 EHT data and measure the source centroid about 1 mas northwest of the compact ring, which is consistent with the jet observed at lower frequencies. 
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    Free, publicly-accessible full text available May 1, 2027