Probing the Relation Between X-ray-Derived and Weak-Lensing-Derived Masses for Shear-Selected Galaxy Clusters: I. A781

TL;DR

This study compares X-ray and weak-lensing mass estimates for four galaxy clusters, finding general agreement but noting potential biases and a merger indication in one cluster, aiding cosmological mass measurement accuracy.

Contribution

It introduces a method to compare X-ray and weak-lensing masses using a common NFW profile and assesses their agreement in shear-selected galaxy clusters.

Findings

Three clusters show agreement between X-ray and weak-lensing masses.

One cluster exhibits a higher X-ray mass estimate, possibly due to a merger.

The method helps identify biases in mass estimation techniques.

Abstract

We compare X-ray and weak-lensing masses for four galaxy clusters that comprise the top-ranked shear-selected cluster system in the Deep Lens Survey. The weak-lensing observations of this system, which is associated with A781, are from the Kitt Peak Mayall 4-m telescope, and the X-ray observations are from both Chandra and XMM-Newton. For a faithful comparison of masses, we adopt the same matter density profile for each method, which we choose to be an NFW profile. Since neither the X-ray nor weak-lensing data are deep enough to well constrain both the NFW scale radius and central density, we estimate the scale radius using a fitting function for the concentration derived from cosmological hydrodynamic simulations and an X-ray estimate of the mass assuming isothermality. We keep this scale radius in common for both X-ray and weak-lensing profiles, and fit for the central density, which scales linearly with mass. We find that for three of these clusters, there is agreement between X-ray and weak-lensing NFW central densities, and thus masses. For the other cluster, the X-ray central density is higher than that from weak-lensing by 2 sigma. X-ray images suggest that this cluster may be undergoing a merger with a smaller cluster. This work serves as an additional step towards understanding the possible biases in X-ray and weak-lensing cluster mass estimation methods. Such understanding is vital to efforts to constrain cosmology using X-ray or weak-lensing cluster surveys to trace the growth of structure over cosmic time.