arXiv subjects

R. Seppi

Publications and source records attributed to R. Seppi.

31 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2024

Detecting Galaxy Groups and AGNs populating the local Universe in the eROSITA era

The eROSITA will deliver an unprecedented volume of X-ray survey observations, 20-30 times more sensitive than ROSAT in the soft band (0.5-2 keV) and for the first time imaging in the hard band (2-10 keV) including galaxy clusters and groups along with obscured and unobscured AGNs. This calls for a powerful theoretical effort to control the systematics and biases that may affect the data analysis. We investigate the detection technique and selection effects in the galaxy group and AGN populations of a mock eROSITA survey at the depth of eRASS:4. We create a $30\times 30$ deg$^{2}$ mock observation based on the cosmological hydrodynamical simulation Magneticum Pathfinder within z=0-0.2. We combine a physical background extracted from the real eFEDS background analysis with realistic simulations of X-ray emission for the hot gas, AGNs and X-ray binaries. We apply a detection procedure equivalent to the reduction done on eRASS data and evaluate the completeness and contamination to reconstruct the luminosity functions of the extended and point sources in the catalogue. We assess the completeness of extended detections as a function of the input X-ray flux and halo. We achieve full recovery of the brightest (most massive) clusters and AGNs. However, a significant fraction of galaxy groups remains undetected. Examining the gas properties between the detected and undetected galaxy groups at fixed halo mass, we observe that the detected population exhibits, on average, higher X-ray brightness compared to the undetected ones. Moreover, we find that X-ray luminosity primarily correlates with the hot gas fraction, rather than temperature or metallicity. Our simulation suggests the presence of a systematic selection effect in current surveys, resulting in X-ray survey catalogues predominantly composed of the lowest-entropy, gas-richest, and highest surface brightness halos on galaxy group scales.

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arXiv2024

The SRG/eROSITA All-Sky Survey: The first catalog of galaxy clusters and groups in the Western Galactic Hemisphere

Clusters of galaxies can be used as powerful probes to study astrophysical processes on large scales, test theories of the growth of structure, and constrain cosmological models. The driving science goal of the SRG/eROSITA All-Sky Survey (eRASS) is to assemble a large sample of X-ray-selected clusters with a well-defined selection function to determine the evolution of the mass function and, hence, the cosmological parameters. We present here a catalog of 12247 optically confirmed galaxy groups and clusters detected in the 0.2-2.3 keV as extended X-ray sources in a 13,116deg$^2$ region in the western Galactic hemisphere of the sky, which eROSITA surveyed in its first six months of operation. The clusters in the sample span the redshift range $0.003<z<1.32$. The majority (68%) of these clusters, 8361 sources, represent new discoveries without known counterparts in the literature. The mass range of the sample covers three orders of magnitude from $5\times10^{12}M_{\rm sun}$ to $2\times10^{15}M_{\rm sun}$. We construct a sample for cosmology with a higher purity level (~95%) than the primary sample, comprising 5259 securely detected and confirmed clusters in the 12791deg$^{2}$ common footprint with the DESI Legacy Survey DR10. We characterize the X-ray properties of each cluster, including their flux, luminosity and temperature, the total mass, gas mass, gas mass fraction, and mass proxy $Y_{X}$. These are determined within two apertures, 300 kpc, and the overdensity radius $R_{500}$, and are calculated by applying a forward modeling approach with a rigorous X-ray background treatment, K-factor, and the Galactic absorption corrections. Population studies utilizing LogN-LogS, the number of clusters detected above a given flux limit, and the luminosity function show overall agreement with the previous X-ray surveys after accounting for the survey completeness and purity (ABRIDGED)

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arXiv2024

The SRG/eROSITA All-Sky Survey: First catalog of superclusters in the western Galactic hemisphere

Superclusters of galaxies mark the large-scale overdense regions in the Universe. Superclusters provide an ideal environment to study structure formation and to search for the emission of the intergalactic medium such as cosmic filaments and WHIM. In this work, we present the largest-to-date catalog of X-ray-selected superclusters identified in the first SRG/eROSITA All-Sky Survey (eRASS1). By applying the Friends-of-Friends method on the galaxy clusters detected in eRASS1, we identified 1338 supercluster systems in the western Galactic hemisphere up to redshift 0.8, including 818 cluster pairs and 520 rich superclusters with $\ge 3$ members. The most massive and richest supercluster system is the Shapley supercluster at redshift 0.05 with 45 members and a total mass of $2.58\pm0.51 \times10^{16} M_{\odot}$. The most extensive system has a projected length of 127~Mpc. The sizes of the superclusters we identified in this work are comparable to the structures found with galaxy survey data. We also found a good association between the eRASS1 superclusters and the large-scale structures formed by optical galaxies. 3948 clusters, corresponding to $45\%$ of the cluster sample, were identified as supercluster members. The reliability of each supercluster was estimated by considering the uncertainties in cluster redshifts and peculiar velocities. 63\% of the systems have a reliability larger than 0.7. The eRASS1 supercluster catalog provided in this work represents the most extensive sample of superclusters selected in the X-ray band in terms of the unprecedented sample volume, sky coverage, redshift range, the availability of X-ray properties, and the well-understood selection function of the parent cluster sample, which enables direct comparisons with numerical simulations. This legacy catalog will greatly advance our understanding of superclusters and the cosmic large-scale structure.

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arXiv2024

The SRG/eROSITA All-Sky Survey: Dark Energy Survey Year 3 Weak Gravitational Lensing by eRASS1 selected Galaxy Clusters

Number counts of galaxy clusters across redshift are a powerful cosmological probe, if a precise and accurate reconstruction of the underlying mass distribution is performed -- a challenge called mass calibration. With the advent of wide and deep photometric surveys, weak gravitational lensing by clusters has become the method of choice to perform this measurement. We measure and validate the weak gravitational lensing (WL) signature in the shape of galaxies observed in the first 3 years of the DES Y3 caused by galaxy clusters selected in the first all-sky survey performed by SRG/eROSITA. These data are then used to determine the scaling between X-ray photon count rate of the clusters and their halo mass and redshift. We empirically determine the degree of cluster member contamination in our background source sample. The individual cluster shear profiles are then analysed with a Bayesian population model that self-consistently accounts for the lens sample selection and contamination, and includes marginalization over a host of instrumental and astrophysical systematics. To quantify the accuracy of the mass extraction of that model, we perform mass measurements on mock cluster catalogs with realistic synthetic shear profiles. This allows us to establish that hydro-dynamical modelling uncertainties at low lens redshifts ($z<0.6$) are the dominant systematic limitation. At high lens redshift the uncertainties of the sources' photometric redshift calibration dominate. With regard to the X-ray count rate to halo mass relation, we constrain all its parameters. This work sets the stage for a joint analysis with the number counts of eRASS1 clusters to constrain a host of cosmological parameters. We demonstrate that WL mass calibration of galaxy clusters can be performed successfully with source galaxies whose calibration was performed primarily for cosmic shear experiments.

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arXiv2024

The SRG/eROSITA All-Sky Survey: Tracing the Large-Scale Structure with a clustering study of galaxy clusters

The spatial distribution of galaxy clusters provides a reliable tracer of the large-scale distribution of matter in the Universe. The clustering signal depends on intrinsic cluster properties and cosmological parameters. The ability of eROSITA onboard Spectrum-Roentgen-Gamma (SRG) to discover galaxy clusters allows probing the association of extended X-ray emission to dark matter haloes. We aim to measure the projected two-point correlation function to study the occupation of dark matter halos by clusters and groups detected by the first eROSITA all-sky survey (eRASS1). We create five volume-limited samples probing clusters with different redshift and X-ray luminosity. We interpret the correlation function with halo occupation distribution (HOD) and halo abundance matching (HAM) models. We simultaneously fit cosmological parameters and halo bias of a flux-limited sample of 6493 clusters with purity > 96%. Results. We obtain a detailed view of the halo occupation for eRASS1 clusters. The fainter population at low redshift (S0: LX = 4.63E43 erg/s, 0.1 < z < 0.2) is the least biased compared to dark matter, with b = 2.95 $\pm$ 0.21. The brightest clusters up to higher redshift (S4: LX = 1.77E44 erg/s , 0.1 < z < 0.6) exhibit a higher bias b = 4.34 $\pm$ 0.62. Satellite groups are rare, with a satellite fraction < 14.9% (8.1) for the S0 (S4) sample. We combine the HOD prediction with a HAM procedure to constrain the scaling relation between LX and mass in a new way and find a scatter of 0.36. We obtain cosmological constraints for the physical cold dark matter density 0.12+0.03-0.02 and an average halo bias b = 3.63+1.02-0.85. We model the clustering of galaxy clusters with a HOD approach for the first time, paving the way for future studies combining eROSITA with 4MOST, SDSS, Euclid, Rubin, and DESI to unravel the cluster distribution in the Universe.

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arXiv2024

The SRG/eROSITA All-Sky Survey: X-ray selection function models for the eRASS1 galaxy cluster cosmology

Characterising galaxy cluster populations from catalog of sources selected in astronomical surveys requires knowledge of sample incompleteness, known as selection function. The first All-Sky Survey (eRASS1) by eROSITA onboard Spectrum Roentgen Gamma (SRG) has enabled the collection of large samples of galaxy clusters detected in the soft X-ray band over the Western Galactic hemisphere. The driving goal consists in constraining cosmological parameters, which puts stringent requirements on accuracy, flexibility and explainability of the selection function models. We use a large set of mock observations of the eRASS1 survey and we process simulated data identically to the real eRASS1 events. We match detected sources to simulated clusters and we associate detections to intrinsic cluster properties. We train a series of models to build selection functions depending only on observable surface brightness data. We develop a second series of models relying on global cluster characteristics such as X-ray luminosity, flux, and expected instrumental count-rate as well as on morphological properties. We validate our models using our simulations and we rank them according to selected performance metrics. We validate the models with datasets of clusters detected in X-rays and via the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect. We present the complete Bayesian population modelling framework developed for this purpose. Our results reveal the surface brightness characteristics most relevant to cluster selection in the eRASS1 sample, in particular the ambiguous role of central surface brightness at the scale of the instrument resolution. We have produced a series of user-friendly selection function models and demonstrated their validity and their limitations. Our selection function for bright sources reproduces well the catalog matches with external datasets. (abridged)

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arXiv2024

The SRG-eROSITA All-Sky Survey : Constraints on f(R) Gravity from Cluster Abundance

The evolution of the cluster mass function traces the growth of the linear density perturbations and can be utilized for constraining the parameters of cosmological and alternative gravity models. In this context, we present new constraints on potential deviations from general relativity by investigating the Hu-Sawicki parametrization of the f(R) gravity with the first SRG-eROSITA All-Sky Survey (eRASS1) cluster catalog in the Western Galactic Hemisphere in combination with the overlapping Dark Energy Survey Year 3, KiloDegree Survey and Hyper Supreme Camera data for weak lensing mass calibration. For the first time, we present constraints obtained from cluster abundances only. When we consider massless neutrinos, we find a strict upper limit of log |fR0| < -4.31 at 95% confidence level. Massive neutrinos suppress structure growth at small scales, and thus have the opposite effect of f(R) gravity. We consequently investigate the joint fit of the mass of the neutrinos with the modified gravity parameter. We obtain log |fR0| < -4.12 jointly with \sum m_ν< 0.44 e.V. at 95% confidence level, tighter than the limits in the literature utilizing cluster counts only. At log |fR0|= - 6, the number of clusters is not significantly changed by the theory. Consequently, we do not find any statistical deviation from general relativity from the study of eRASS1 cluster abundance. Deeper surveys with eROSITA, increasing the number of detected clusters, will further improve constraints on log |fR0| and investigate alternative gravity theories.

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arXiv2024

The SRG/eROSITA all-sky survey: Hard X-ray selected Active Galactic Nuclei

The eROSITA instrument aboard the Spectrum Roentgen Gamma (SRG) satellite has performed its first all-sky survey between December 2019 and June 2020. This paper presents the resulting hard X-ray (2.3-5 keV) sample, the first created from an all-sky imaging survey in the 2-8 keV band, for sources within western galactic sky. The 5466 hard X-ray selected sources detected with eROSITA are presented and discussed. The Bayesian statistics-based code NWAY is used to identify the counterparts for the X-ray sources. These sources are classified based on their multiwavelength properties, and the literature is searched to identify spectroscopic redshifts, which further inform the source classification. A total of 2547 sources are found to have good-quality counterparts, and 111 of these are detected only in the hard band. Comparing with other hard X-ray selected surveys, the eROSITA hard sample covers a larger redshift range and probes dimmer sources, providing a complementary and expanded sample as compared to Swift-BAT. Examining the column density distribution of missed and detected eROSITA sources present in the follow-up catalog of Swift BAT 70 month sources, it is demonstrated that eROSITA can detect obscured sources with column densities $>10^{24}$ cm$^{-2}$, but that the completeness drops rapidly after $10^{23}$ cm$^{-2}$. A sample of hard-only sources, many of which are likely to be heavily obscured AGN, is also presented and discussed. X-ray spectral fitting reveals that these sources have extremely faint soft X-ray emission and their optical images suggest that they are found in more edge-on galaxies with lower b/a. The resulting X-ray catalog is demonstrated to be a powerful tool for understanding AGN, in particular heavily obscured AGN found in the hard-only sample.

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arXiv2023

O Corona, where art thou? eROSITA's view of UV-optical-IR variability-selected massive black holes in low-mass galaxies

Finding massive black holes (MBHs, $M_{BH}\approx10^4-10^7 M_{\odot}$) in the nuclei of low-mass galaxies ($M_{*}\lessapprox10^{10} M_{\odot}$) is crucial to constrain seeding and growth of black holes over cosmic time, but it is particularly challenging due to their low accretion luminosities. Variability selection via long-term photometric ultraviolet, optical, or infrared (UVOIR) light curves has proved effective and identifies lower-Eddington ratios compared to broad and narrow optical spectral lines searches. In the inefficient accretion regime, X-ray and radio searches are effective, but they have been limited to small samples. Therefore, differences between selection techniques have remained uncertain. Here, we present the first large systematic investigation of the X-ray properties of a sample of known MBH candidates in dwarf galaxies. We extracted X-ray photometry and spectra of a sample of $\sim200$ UVOIR variability-selected MBHs and significantly detected 17 of them in the deepest available \emph{SRG}/eROSITA image, of which four are newly discovered X-ray sources and two are new secure MBHs. This implies that tens to hundreds of LSST MBHs will have SRG/eROSITA counterparts, depending on the seeding model adopted. Surprisingly, the stacked X-ray images of the many non-detected MBHs are incompatible with standard disk-corona relations, typical of active galactic nuclei, inferred from both the optical and radio fluxes. They are instead compatible with the X-ray emission predicted for normal galaxies. After careful consideration of potential biases, we identified that this X-ray weakness needs a physical origin. A possibility is that a canonical X-ray corona might be lacking in the majority of this population of UVOIR-variability selected low-mass galaxies or that unusual accretion modes and spectral energy distributions are in place for MBHs in dwarf galaxies.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2022

Offset between X-ray and optical centers in clusters of galaxies: connecting eROSITA data and simulations

The characterization of the dynamical state of clusters is key to study their evolution, their selection, and use them as a cosmological probe. The offsets between different definitions of the center have been used to estimate the cluster disturbance. Our goal is to study the distribution of the offset between the X-ray and optical centers in clusters of galaxies. We study the offset for eROSITA clusters. We aim to connect observations to hydrodynamical simulations and N-body models. We assess the astrophysical effects affecting the displacements. We measure the offset for clusters observed in eFEDS and eRASS1. We focus on a subsample of 87 massive eFEDS clusters at low redshift. We link the observations to the offset parameter Xoff measured on dark matter halos in N-body simulations, using the hydrodynamical simulations as a bridge. eFEDS clusters show a smaller offset compared to eRASS1, because the latter contains a larger fraction of massive and disturbed structures. We measure an average offset of 76.3+30.1-27.1 kpc on the subsample of 87 eFEDS clusters. This is in agreement with the predictions from TNG and Magneticum, and the distribution of Xoff from DMO simulations. The tails of the distributions are different. Using the offset to classify relaxed and disturbed clusters, we measure a relaxed fraction of 31% in the eFEDS subsample. Finally, we find a correlation between the offset in hydrodynamical simulations and Xoff measured on their parent DMO run and calibrate a relation between them. There is good agreement between eROSITA data and simulations. Baryons cause a decrement (increment) in the low (high) offset regime compared to the Xoff distribution. The offset-Xoff relation provides an accurate prediction of the true Xoff distribution in Magneticum and TNG. It allows introducing the offsets in cosmology, marginalizing on dynamical selection effects.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2022

Detecting clusters of galaxies and active galactic nuclei in an eROSITA all-sky survey digital twin

The extended ROentgen Survey with an Imaging Telescope Array (eROSITA) onboard the Spectrum-Roentgen-Gamma (SRG) observatory is revolutionizing X-ray astronomy. It provides large samples of active galactic nuclei (AGN) and clusters of galaxies, with the potential of studying X-ray sources and measuring cosmological parameters using X-ray-selected samples with higher precision than ever before. We aim to study the detection, and the selection of AGN and clusters in the first eROSITA all-sky survey (eRASS1), and to characterize the properties of the source catalog. We produced a half-sky eRASS1 simulation, by combining models that truthfully represent the clusters and AGN. In total, we simulated 1 116 758 clusters and 225 583 320 AGN. We ran the standard eROSITA detection algorithm. We matched the input and source catalogs with a photon-based algorithm. We perfectly recovered the bright sources. We detected half of the AGN brighter than 2e-14 erg/s/cm2 as point sources and half of the clusters brighter than 3e-13 erg/s/cm2 as extended in the 0.5-2.0 keV band. We quantified the detection performance in terms of completeness, false detection rate, and contamination. We studied the source catalog according to multiple cuts of detection and extension likelihood. We find that the detection of clusters is mainly driven by flux and exposure. It depends on secondary effects, such as the size of the clusters and their dynamical state. The cool core bias mostly affects faint clusters classified as point sources, while its impact on the extent-selected sample is small. The measured X-ray luminosity of the detected clusters is compatible with the simulated values. We discuss how to best build samples of galaxy clusters for cosmological purposes, accounting for the nonuniform depth of eROSITA. This simulation provides a digital twin of the real eRASS1.

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arXiv2021

The eROSITA Final Equatorial-Depth Survey (eFEDS): Catalog of galaxy clusters and groups

The eROSITA Final Equatorial-Depth Survey has been carried out during the PV phase of the SRG/eROSITA telescope and completed in November 2019. This survey is designed to provide the first eROSITA-selected sample of galaxy clusters and groups and to test the predictions for the all-sky survey in the context of cosmological studies with clusters. In the 140 deg$^2$ area covered by eFEDS, 542 candidate clusters and groups are detected as extended X-ray sources, down to a flux of $\sim10^{-14} $erg/s/cm$^2$ in the soft band (0.5-2 keV) within 1'. In this work, we provide the catalog of candidate galaxy clusters and groups in eFEDS. We perform imaging and spectral analysis on the eFEDS clusters with eROSITA X-ray data, and study the properties of the sample. The clusters are distributed in the redshift range [0.01, 1.3], with the median redshift at 0.35. We obtain the ICM temperature measurement with $>2σ$ c.l. for $\sim$1/5 (102/542) of the sample. The average temperature of these clusters is $\sim$2 keV. Radial profiles of flux, luminosity, electron density, and gas mass are measured from the precise modeling of the imaging data. The selection function, the purity and completeness of the catalog are examined and discussed in detail. The contamination fraction is $\sim1/5$ in this sample, dominated by misidentified point sources. The X-ray Luminosity Function of the clusters agrees well with the results obtained from other recent X-ray surveys. We also find 19 supercluster candidates in eFEDS, most of which are located at redshifts between 0.1 and 0.5. The eFEDS cluster and group catalog provides a benchmark proof-of-concept for the eROSITA All-Sky Survey extended source detection and characterization. We confirm the excellent performance of eROSITA for cluster science and expect no significant deviations from our pre-launch expectations for the final All-Sky Survey.

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arXiv2021

The mass function dependence on the dynamical state of dark matter haloes

Galaxy clusters are luminous tracers of the most massive dark matter haloes in the Universe. To use them as a cosmological probe, a detailed description of the properties of dark matter haloes is required. We characterize how the dynamical state of haloes impacts the halo mass function at the high-mass end. We used the dark matter-only MultiDark suite of simulations and the high-mass objects M > 2.7e13 M/h therein. We measured mean relations of concentration, offset, and spin as a function of halo mass and redshift. We investigated the distributions around the mean relations. We measured the halo mass function as a function of offset, spin, and redshift. We formulated a generalized mass function framework that accounts for the dynamical state of the dark matter haloes. We confirm the discovery of the concentration upturn at high masses and provide a model that predicts the concentration for different values of mass and redshift with one single equation. We model the distributions around the mean concentration, offset, and spin with modified Schechter functions. The concentration of low-mass haloes shows a faster redshift evolution compared to high-mass haloes, especially in the high-concentration regime. The offset parameter is smaller at low redshift, in agreement with the relaxation of structures at recent times. The peak of its distribution shifts by a factor of 1.5 from z = 1.4 to z = 0. The individual models are combined into a comprehensive mass function model, as a function of spin and offset. Our model recovers the fiducial mass function with 3% accuracy at redshift 0 and accounts for redshift evolution up to z = 1.5. This approach accounts for the dynamical state of the halo when measuring the halo mass function. It offers a connection with dynamical selection effects in galaxy cluster observations. This is key toward precision cosmology using cluster counts as a probe.

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