arXiv subjects

Florence Durret

Publications and source records attributed to Florence Durret.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Simulations of collision and sloshing in the galaxy group NGC 5098/5096

The study of galaxy groups is essential to understanding the evolutionary history of large-scale structures in the Universe. These dense environments have a significant impact on galaxy evolution, influencing their gas content, morphology, and star formation activity. In this work we analyse in detail the system NGC~5098$/$5096 composed of two galaxy groups. We performed hydrodynamical $N$-body simulations of a galaxy group collision aimed at reproducing the gas sloshing and surface brightness distribution observed in X-ray data. We conducted a detailed X-ray analysis and generated mock image \textit{Chandra} observations from our simulations. The resulting corrected mock image surface brightness profiles show good agreement with the observed data. The relative line-of-sight velocity between NGC~5098 and NGC~5096 is $v_{\mathrm{los}} = 700$ km s$^{-1}$, with a projected separation of $d_{\mathrm{proj}} = 155$ kpc, suggesting that the collision occurs nearly in the line-of-sight. Our simulations were performed with an inclination angle of $80^\circ$ in order to reproduce the dynamical constraints. We also find a correlation between the dark matter and intragroup light distributions when comparing the residual dark matter map with the intragroup light morphology. Our best-fitting model is consistent with these observational constraints and provides a plausible dynamical scenario for the current state of the NGC~5098 group interaction with NGC 5096.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2025

Low Surface Brightness structures from annotated deep CFHT images: effects of the host galaxy's properties and environment

Hierarchical galactic evolution models predict that mergers drive galaxy growth, producing low surface brightness (LSB) tidal features that trace galaxies' late assembly. These faint structures encode information about past mergers and are sensitive to the properties and environment of the host galaxy. We investigated the relationships between LSB features and their hosts in a sample of 475 nearby massive galaxies spanning diverse environments (field, groups, Virgo cluster) using deep optical imaging from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (MATLAS, UNIONS/CFIS, VESTIGE, NGVS). Using Jafar, an online annotation tool, we manually annotated tidal features and extended stellar haloes, including 199 tidal tails and 100 streams. Geometric and photometric measurements were extracted to analyse their dependence on galaxy mass, environment, and internal kinematics. At our surface brightness limit of 29 mag$\,$arcsec$^{-2}$, tidal features and stellar haloes contribute 2% and 10% of total galaxy luminosity, respectively. Tidal features are detected in 36% of galaxies, with none fainter than 27.8 mag$\,$arcsec$^{-2}$. The most massive galaxies are twice as likely to host tidal debris, and for early-type galaxies their halos are twice as luminous as those in lower-mass systems, a trend not observed in late-type galaxies. Although small-scale interactions increase the frequency of tidal features, the large-scale environment does not influence it. An anticorrelation between this frequency and rotational support is found, but may reflect the mass-driven effect. We release our database of annotated features for deep learning applications. Our findings confirm that galaxy mass is the dominant factor influencing tidal feature prevalence, consistent with hierarchical formation models.

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arXiv2025

Stellar populations from H-band VLT spectroscopy in a sample of seven active galaxies

The relationship between an active galactic nucleus (AGN) and its host galaxy is still far from being understood. Properties of the host galaxies of Seyfert nuclei, such as luminosity concentration, morphological type, metallicity, and age of the stellar population are expected to be related with nuclear activity -- either at the epoch of galaxy formation or in the present days via feeding of the central black-hole. In this paper we investigate whether stellar ages and metallicities are linked to the activity within the nucleus in a sample of AGN of various types. Our sample includes seven AGN, from Seyfert 1 to LINERs, observed with VLT/ISAAC and VLT/SINFONI. Based on an inverse method using a stellar library, we analyse H band infrared spectra, in a wavelength region devoid of emission lines, at a spectral resolution of about 3000, in the central few 100 pc. HST images are used to visualise the regions defined in each galaxy. For each galaxy, we give the results of the spectral synthesis, in particular the percentages of the stellar, power law and blackbody continua, and the percentages of various stellar types that account for the stellar lines. Out of the seven galaxies, three show strong and recent star formation in the inner 100 pc, while no star formation is detected in the three genuine Seyfert 2 galaxies. Beyond a radius of 100 pc, all show more or less recent star formation. Moreover we can conclude that the star formation history of the inner nucleus is highly heterogeneous.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2022

Physical properties of more than one thousand brightest cluster galaxies detected in the Canada France Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey

Brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) are very massive elliptical galaxies found at the centers of clusters. Their study gives clues on the formation and evolution of the clusters in which they are embedded. We analysed here in a homogeneous way the properties of a sample of more than one thousand BCGs in the redshift range 0.15 < z < 0.7, based on images from the Canada France Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey. Based on the cluster catalogue of 1371 clusters by Sarron et al. (2018), we applied our automatic BCG detection algorithm and identified successfully 70% of the BCGs in our sample. We analysed their 2D photometric properties with GALFIT. We also compared the position angles of the BCG major axes with those of the overall cluster to which they belong. We found no evolution of the BCG properties with redshift up to z = 0.7, in agreement with previous results by Chu et al. (2021), who analysed an order of magnitude smaller sample, but reaching a redshift z = 1.8. The Kormendy relation for BCGs is tight and consistent with that of normal elliptical galaxies and BCGs measured by other authors. The position angles of the BCGs and of the cluster to which they belong agree within 30 degrees for 55% of the objects with well defined position angles. The study of this very large sample of more than one thousand BCGs shows that they were mainly formed before z = 0.7, as we find no significant growth for the luminosities and sizes of central galaxies. We discuss the importance of the intracluster light in the interpretation of these results. We highlight the role of image depth in the modelisation of the luminosity profiles of BCGs, and give evidence for the presence of an inner structure which can only be resolved on deep surveys with limiting apparent magnitude at 80% completeness m80 > 26 mag/arcsec2.

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arXiv2022

Ram pressure stripping in the z~0.5 galaxy cluster MS 0451.6-0305

The pressure exerted by the ambient hot X-ray gas on cluster galaxies can lead to the presence of ram pressure stripped (RPS) galaxies, characterized by asymmetric shapes, and, in some cases, tails of blue stars and/or X-ray gas, with increased star formation. We searched for such galaxies in the cluster MS 0451.6-0305 at z~0.5, based on Hubble Space Telescope (HST) imaging covering a region of about 6x6 Mpc^2, an eight magnitude ground-based catalogue with photometric redshifts, and a spectroscopic redshift catalogue. We defined as cluster members a spectroscopic redshift sample of 359 galaxies within 4sigma_v of the mean cluster velocity, and a photometric redshift sample covering the [0.48,0.61] range. We searched for RPS galaxies and tested the error on their classification with a Zooniverse collaboration, and computed the phase space diagram for the spectroscopic sample. We ran the LePhare stellar population synthesis code to analyze and compare the properties of RPS and non-RPS galaxies. We find 56 and 273 RPS candidates in the spectroscopic and photometric redshift samples, respectively, distributed throughout the cluster and tending to avoid high density regions. The phase space diagram gives the percentages of virialized, backsplash, and infall galaxies. RPS galaxy candidates typically show rather high star formation rates, young ages, and relatively low masses. This study confirms that RPS galaxies host, on average, younger stellar populations and strongly form stars when compared with non-RPS counterparts. The fact that RPS candidates with spectroscopic and with photometric redshifts have comparable properties shows that large samples of such objects could be gathered based on multi-band photometry only, a promising result in view of future very large imaging surveys.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2021

Efficient detection of emission line galaxies in the Cl0016+1609 and MACSJ1621.4+3810 supercluster filaments using SITELLE

We observe a system of filaments and clusters around Cl0016+1609 and MACSJ1621.4+3810 using the SITELLE Fourier transform spectrograph at the Canada France Hawaii Telescope. For Cl0016+1609 (z=0.546), the observations span an 11.8 Mpc x 4.3 Mpc region along an eastern filament which covers the main cluster core, as well as two 4.3 Mpc x 4.3 Mpc regions which each cover southern subclumps. For MACSJ1621.4+3810 (z= 0.465), 3.9 Mpc x 3.9 Mpc around the main cluster core is covered. We present the frequency and location of the emission line galaxies, their emission line images, and calculate the star formation rates, specific star formation rates and merger statistics. In Cl0016+1609, we find thirteen [OII]~3727 Angstrom emitting galaxies with star formation rates between 0.2 and 14.0 M$_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$. 91$^{+3}_{-10}$% are found in regions with moderate local galaxy density, avoiding the dense cluster cores. These galaxies follow the main filament of the superstructure, and are mostly blue and disky, with several showing close companions and merging morphologies. In MACSJ1621.4+3810, we find ten emission line sources. All are blue (100$^{+0}_{-15}$%), with 40$^{+16}_{-12}$% classified as disky and 60$^{+12}_{-16}$% as merging systems. Eight avoid the cluster core (80$^{+7}_{-17}$%), but two (20$^{+17}_{-7}$%) are found near high density regions, including the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG). These observations push the spectroscopic study of galaxies in filaments beyond z~ 0.3 to z~ 0.5. Their efficient confirmation is paramount to their usefulness as more galaxy surveys come online.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2021

Jellyfish galaxy candidates in MACS J0717.5+3745 and thirty-nine other clusters of the DAFT/FADA and CLASH surveys

Galaxies in clusters undergo several phenomena such as ram pressure stripping and tidal interactions, that can trigger or quench their star formation and, in some cases, lead to galaxies acquiring unusual shapes and long tails. We searched for jellyfish galaxy candidates in a sample of 40 clusters from the DAFT/FADA and CLASH surveys covering the redshift range 0.2<z<0.9. In MACS J0717.5+3745 (MACS0717), our large spatial coverage and abundant sampling of spectroscopic redshifts allowed us to pursue a detailed analysis of jellyfish galaxy candidates in this cluster and its extended filament. We looked at the Hubble Space Telescope images of all the cluster galaxies (based on redshifts), and classified them as a function of their likeliness to be jellyfish galaxies, and give catalogues of jellyfish candidates with positions, redshifts, magnitudes, and projected distance to the respective cluster centre. We found 81 jellyfish candidates in the extended region around MACS0717, and 97 in 22 other clusters. Jellyfish galaxy candidates in MACS0717 tend to avoid the densest regions of the cluster, while this does not appear to be the case in the other clusters. For 79 galaxies in MACS0717 and 31 in other clusters, we computed the best stellar population fits with LePhare through the GAZPAR interface. We find that jellyfish candidates tend to be star forming objects, with blue colours, young ages, high star formation rates and specific star formation rates. In a SFR versus stellar mass diagram, jellyfish galaxy candidates appear to have somewhat larger SFRs than non-jellyfish star forming galaxies Based on several arguments, the jellyfish candidates identified in MACS0717 seem to have fallen rather recently into the cluster. A very rough estimate of the proportions of jellyfish galaxies in the studied clusters is about 10%.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2021

Physical properties of Brightest Cluster Galaxies up to redshift 1.80 based on HST data

Brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) have grown by accreting numerous smaller galaxies and can be used as tracers of cluster formation and evolution in the cosmic web. However, there is still a controversy on the main epoch of formation of BCGs, since some authors believe they have already formed before redshift z=2, while others still find them to evolve at more recent epochs. We aim to analyse the physical properties of a large sample of BCGs covering a wide redshift range up to z=1.8 and analysed in a homogeneous way, to see if their characteristics vary with redshift. As a first step, we also present a new tool to define for each cluster which galaxy is the BCG. For a sample of 137 clusters with HST images in the optical and/or infrared, we analyse the BCG properties by applying GALFIT with one or two Sersic components. For each BCG, we compute the Sersic index, effective radius, major axis position angle, surface brightness. We then search for correlations of these quantities with redshift. We find that BCGs follow the Kormendy relation (between the effective radius and the mean surface brightness), with a slope that remains constant with redshift, but with a variation with redshift of the ordinate at the origin. Although the trends are faint, we find that both the absolute magnitudes and effective radii tend to become respectively brighter and bigger with decreasing redshift. On the other hand, we find no significant correlation of the mean surface brightnesses or Sersic indices with redshift. The major axes of the cluster elongations and of the BCGs agree within 30 degrees for 73% of our clusters at redshift z <= 0.9. Our results agree with the BCGs being mainly formed before redshift z=2. The alignment of the major axes of BCGs with their clusters agree with the general idea that BCGs form at the same time as clusters by accreting matter along the filaments of the cosmic web.

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arXiv2019

The 3XMM/SDSS Stripe 82 Galaxy Cluster Survey II. X-ray and optical properties of the cluster sample

We present X-ray and optical properties of the optically confirmed galaxy cluster sample from the 3XMM/SDSS Stripe 82 cluster survey. The sample includes 54 galaxy clusters in the redshift range of 0.05-1.2, with a median redshift of 0.36. We first present the X-ray temperature and luminosity measurements that are used to investigate the X-ray luminosity-temperature relation. The slope and intercept of the relation are consistent with those published in the literature. Then, we investigate the optical properties of the cluster galaxies including their morphological analysis and the galaxy luminosity functions. The morphological content of cluster galaxies is investigated as a function of cluster mass and distance from the cluster center. No strong variation of the fraction of early and late type galaxies with cluster mass is observed. The fraction of early type galaxies as a function of cluster radius varies as expected. The individual galaxy luminosity functions (GLFs) of red sequence galaxies were studied in the five ugriz bands for 48 clusters. The GLFs were then stacked in three mass bins and two redshift bins. Twenty clusters of the present sample are studied for the first time in X-rays, and all are studied for the first time in the optical range. Altogether, our sample appears to have X-ray and optical properties typical of average cluster properties.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2019

Pre-processing of galaxies in cosmic filaments around AMASCFI clusters in the CFHTLS

Galaxy clusters and groups are thought to accrete material along the preferred direction of cosmic filaments. Yet these structures have proven difficult to detect due to their low contrast with few studies focusing on cluster infall regions. In this work, we detected cosmic filaments around galaxy clusters using photometric redshifts in the range 0.15<z<0.7. We characterised galaxy populations in these structures to study the influence of "pre-processing" by cosmic filaments and galaxy groups on star-formation quenching. The cosmic filament detection was performed using the AMASCFI Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey (CFHTLS) T0007 cluster sample (Sarron et al. 2018). The filament reconstruction was done with the DISPERSE algorithm in photometric redshift slices. We showed that this reconstruction is reliable for a CFHTLS-like survey at 0.15<z<0.7 using a mock galaxy catalogue. We split our galaxy catalogue in two populations (passive and star-forming) using the LePhare SED fitting algorithm and worked with two redshift bins (0.15<z<=0.4 and 0.4<z<0.7). We showed that the AMASCFI cluster connectivity (i.e. the number of filaments connecting to a cluster) increases with cluster mass M200. Filament galaxies outside R200 are found to be closer to clusters at low redshift, whatever the galaxy type. Passive galaxies in filaments are closer to clusters than star-forming galaxies in the low redshift bin only. The passive fraction of galaxies decreases with increasing clustercentric distance up to d~5 cMpc. Galaxy groups/clusters that are not located at nodes of our reconstruction are mainly found inside cosmic filaments. These results give clues for "pre-processing" in cosmic filaments, that could be due to smaller galaxy groups. This trend could be further explored by applying this method to larger photometric surveys such as HSC-SPP or Euclid.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2018

Evolution of the cluster optical galaxy luminosity function in the CFHTLS : breaking the degeneracy between mass and redshift

Obtaining large samples of galaxy clusters is important for cosmology, since cluster counts as a function of redshift and mass can constrain the parameters of our Universe. They are also useful to understand the formation and evolution of clusters. We develop an improved version of the AMACFI cluster finder (now AMASCFI) and apply it to the 154 deg2 of the Canada France Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey (CFHTLS) to obtain a catalogue of 1371 cluster candidates with mass M200 > 10^14 Msun and redshift z < 0.7. We derive the selection function of AMASCFI from the Millennium simulation, and cluster masses from a richness-mass scaling relation built from matching our candidates with X-ray detections. We study the evolution of these clusters with mass and redshift by computing the i'-band galaxy luminosity functions (GLFs) for the early (ETGs) and late-type galaxies (LTGs). This sample is 90% pure and 70% complete, therefore our results are representative the cluster population in these redshift and mass ranges. We find an increase of both the ETG and LTG faint populations with decreasing redshift (with Schechter slopes alpha_ETG = -0.65 +/- 0.03 at z=0.6 and alpha_ETG = -0.79 +\- 0.02 at z=0.2) and also a decrease of the LTG bright end, but not of the ETG's. Our large sample allows us to break the degeneracy between mass and redshift, finding that the redshift evolution is more pronounced in high-mass clusters, but that there is no significant dependence of the faint end on mass for a given redshift. These results show that the cluster red sequence is mainly formed at redshift z > 0.7, and that faint ETGs continue to enrich the red sequence through quenching of brighter LTGs at z < 0.7. The efficiency of this quenching is higher in large-mass clusters while the accretion rate of faint LTGs is lower as the more massive clusters have already emptied most of their environment at higher redshifts.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2018

The optical properties of galaxies in the Ophiuchus cluster

We investigate the optical properties of Ophiuchus to obtain clues on the formation epoch of this cluster, and compare them to those of the Coma cluster, which is comparable in mass to Ophiuchus but much more disturbed dynamically. Based on a deep image of the Ophiuchus cluster in the r' band obtained at the Canada France Hawaii Telescope with the MegaCam camera, we have applied an iterative process to subtract the contribution of the numerous stars that pollute the image, due to the low Galactic latitude of the cluster, and obtained a photometric catalogue of 2818 galaxies fully complete at r'=20.5 mag and still 91% complete at r'=21.5 mag. We use this catalogue to derive the cluster Galaxy Luminosity Function (GLF) for the overall image and for a region (hereafter the "rectangle" region) covering exactly the same physical size as the region in which the GLF of the Coma cluster was studied by Adami et al. (2007). We then compute density maps based on an adaptive kernel technique, for different magnitude limits, and define three circular regions covering 0.08, 0.08 and 0.06 deg^2 respectively centered on the cluster (C), northwest (NW) and southeast (SE) of the cluster, in which we compute the GLFs. The GLF fits are much better when a Gaussian is added to the usual Schechter function, to account for the excess of very bright galaxies. Compared to Coma, Ophiuchus shows a strong excess of bright galaxies. The properties of the two nearby very massive clusters Ophiuchus and Coma are quite comparable, though they seem embedded in different large scale environments. Our interpretation is that Ophiuchus has built up long ago, as confirmed by its relaxed state (see paper I) while Coma is still in the process of forming.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2017

Galaxy Evolution in the Cluster Abell 85: New Insights from the Dwarf Population

We present the first results of a new spectroscopic survey of the cluster Abell 85 targeting 1466 candidate cluster members within the central $\sim$1 deg$^2$ of the cluster and having magnitudes $m_r < 20.5$ using VIMOS/VLT and HYDRA/WIYN. A total of 520 galaxies are confirmed as either relaxed cluster members or part of an infalling population. A significant fraction are low mass; the median stellar mass of the sample is $10^{9.6} M_{\odot} $, and 25% have stellar masses below $10^9 M_{\odot}$ (i.e. 133 dwarf galaxies). We also identify seven active galactic nuclei (AGN), four of which reside in dwarf host galaxies. We probe the evolution of star formation rates, based on H$α$ emission and continuum modeling, as a function of both mass and environment. We find that more star forming galaxies are observed at larger clustercentric distances, while infalling galaxies show evidence for recently enhanced star forming activity. Main sequence galaxies, defined by their continuum star formation rates, show different evolutionary behavior based on their mass. At the low mass end, the galaxies have had their star formation recently quenched, while more massive galaxies show no significant change. The timescales probed here favor fast quenching mechanisms, such as ram-pressure stripping. Galaxies within the green valley, defined similarly, do not show evidence of quenching. Instead, the low mass galaxies maintain their levels of star forming activity, while the more massive galaxies have experienced a recent burst.

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arXiv2017

The Canada-France Imaging Survey: First results from the u-band component

The Canada-France Imaging Survey (CFIS) will map the northern high Galactic latitude sky in the $u$-band ("CFIS-u", 10,000$\, {\rm deg^2}$) and in the $r$-band ("CFIS-r", 5,000$\, {\rm deg^2}$), enabling a host of stand-alone science investigations, and providing some of the ground-based data necessary for photometric redshift determination for the Euclid mission. In this first contribution we present the $u$-band component of the survey, describe the observational strategy, and discuss some first highlight results, based on approximately one third of the final area. We show that the Galactic anticenter structure is distributed continuously along the line of sight, out to beyond 20 kpc, and possesses a metallicity distribution that is essentially identical to that of the outer disk sampled by APOGEE. This suggests that it is probably a buckled disk of old metal-rich stars, rather than a stream or a flare. We also discuss the future potential for CFIS-u in discovering star-forming dwarf galaxies around the Local Group, the characterization of the white dwarf and blue straggler population of the Milky Way, as well as its sensitivity to low-surface brightness structures in external galaxies.

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arXiv2017

Chemical Mapping of the Milky Way With The Canada-France Imaging Survey: A Non-parametric Metallicity-Distance Decomposition of the Galaxy

We present the chemical distribution of the Milky Way, based on 2,900$\, {\rm deg^2}$ of $u$-band photometry taken as part of the Canada-France Imaging Survey. When complete, this survey will cover 10,000$\, {\rm deg^2}$ of the Northern sky. By combing the CFHT $u$-band photometry together with SDSS and Pan-STARRS $g,r,$ and $i$, we demonstrate that we are able to measure reliably the metallicities of individual stars to $\sim 0.2$ dex, and hence additionally obtain good photometric distance estimates. This survey thus permits the measurement of metallicities and distances of the dominant main-sequence population out to approximately 30 kpc, and provides much higher number of stars at large extraplanar distances than have been available from previous surveys. We develop a non-parametric distance-metallicity decomposition algorithm and apply it to the sky at $30°< |b| < 70°$ and to the North Galactic Cap. We find that the metallicity-distance distribution is well-represented by three populations whose metallicity distributions do not vary significantly with vertical height above the disk. As traced in main-sequence stars, the stellar halo component shows a vertical density profile that is close to exponential, with a scale height of around 3 kpc. This may indicate that the inner halo was formed partly from disk stars ejected in an ancient minor merger.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2017

The faint end of the red sequence galaxy luminosity function: unveiling surface brightness selection effects with the CLASH clusters

Characterizing the evolution of the faint end of the cluster red sequence (RS) galaxy luminosity function (GLF) with redshift is a milestone in understanding galaxy evolution. However, the community is still divided in that respect, hesitating between an enrichment of the RS due to efficient quenching of blue galaxies from $z\sim1$ to present-day or a scenario in which the RS is built at a higher redshift and does not evolve afterwards. Recently, it has been proposed that surface brightness (SB) selection effects could possibly solve the literature disagreement, accounting for the diminishing of the RS faint population in ground based observations. We investigate this hypothesis by comparing the RS GLFs of 16 CLASH clusters computed independently from ground-based Subaru/Suprime-Cam and HST/ACS images in the redshift range $0.187\leq z\leq0.686$. We stack individual cluster GLFs in redshift and mass bins. We find similar RS GLFs for space and ground based data, with a difference of 0.2$σ$ in the faint end parameter $α$ when stacking all clusters together and a maximum difference of 0.9$σ$ in the case of the high redshift stack, demonstrating a weak dependence on the type of observations in the probed range of redshift and mass. When considering the full sample, we estimate $α= -0.76 \pm 0.07$ and $α= -0.78 \pm 0.06$ with HST and Subaru respectively. We note a mild variation of the faint end with redshift at a 1.7$σ$ and 2.6$σ$ significance. We investigate the effect of SB dimming by simulating our low redshift galaxies at high redshift. We measure an evolution in the faint end slope of less than 1$σ$ in this case, implying that the observed signature is moderately larger than one would expect from SB dimming alone, and indicating a true evolution in the faint end slope. (Abridged...)

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2017

Weak lensing and spectroscopic analysis of the nearby dissociative merging galaxy cluster Abell 3376

The galaxy cluster Abell~3376 is a nearby (z=0.046) dissociative merging cluster surrounded by two prominent radio relics and showing an X-ray comet-like morphology. The merger system is comprised of the subclusters A3376W & A3376E. Based on new deep multi-wavelength large-field images and published redshifts, we bring new insights about the history of this merger. Despite the difficulty of applying the weak lensing technique at such low redshift, we successfully recovered the mass distribution in the cluster field. Moreover, with the application of a two-body model, we have addressed the dynamics of these merging system. We have found the individual masses of M_{200}^{W}=3.0_{-1.7}^{+1.3}x10^{14} M_{\odot} and M_{200}^{E}=0.9_{-0.8}^{+0.5}x10^{14} M_{\odot}. The cometary shaped X-ray distribution shows only one peak spatially coincident with both Eastern BCG and the A3376E mass peak whereas the gas content of A3376W seems to be stripped out. Our data allowed us to confirm the existence of a third subcluster located at the North, 1147+-62 kpc apart from the neighbour subcluster A3376E and having a mass M_{200}^{N}=1.4_{-1.0}^{+0.7}x10^{14} M_{\odot}. From our dynamical analysis, we found the merging is taking place very close to the plane of the sky, with the merger axis just 10 deg +-11 deg from it. The application of a two-body analysis code showed that the merging cluster is seen 0.9_{-0.3}^{+0.2} Gyr after the pericentric passage and it is currently going to the point of maximum separation between the subclusters.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2016

The 3XMM/SDSS Stripe 82 Galaxy Cluster Survey: Cluster catalogue and discovery of two merging cluster candidates

We present a galaxy cluster survey based on XMM-Newton observations that are located in Stripe 82 of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). The survey covers an area of 11.25 deg$^2$. The X-ray cluster candidates were selected as serendipitously extended detected sources from the third XMM-Newton serendipitous source catalogue (3XMM-DR5). A cross-correlation of the candidate list that comprises 94 objects with recently published X-ray and optically selected cluster catalogues provided optical confirmations and redshift estimates for about half of the candidate sample. We present a catalogue of X-ray cluster candidates previously known in X-ray and/or optical bands from the matched catalogues or NED. The catalogue consists of 54 systems with redshift measurements in the range of 0.05-1.19 with a median of 0.36. Of these, 45 clusters have spectroscopic confirmations as stated in the matched catalogues. We spectroscopically confirmed another 6 clusters from the available spectroscopic redshifts in the SDSS-DR12. The cluster catalogue includes 17 newly X-ray discovered clusters, while the remainder were detected in previous XMM-Newton and/or ROSAT cluster surveys. Based on the available redshifts and fluxes given in the 3XMM-DR5 catalogue, we estimated the X-ray luminosities and masses for the cluster sample. We also present the list of the remaining X-ray cluster candidates (40 objects) that have no redshift information yet in the literature. Of these candidates, 25 sources are considered as distant cluster candidates beyond a redshift of 0.6. We also searched for galaxy cluster mergers in our cluster sample and found two strong candidates for newly discovered cluster mergers at redshifts of 0.11 and 0.26. The X-ray and optical properties of these systems are presented.

astro-ph.CO↗