Investigating the Relationship Between the Hot Gas and the Dark Matter Components of Galaxy Clusters

TL;DR

This study examines the relationship between hot gas and dark matter in galaxy clusters by comparing substructures in simulated X-ray and mass maps, highlighting differences observed in real data.

Contribution

It introduces a method to compare 2D projected mass substructures with 3D subhalo data and X-ray features in simulated galaxy clusters.

Findings

Projection affects subhalo identification accuracy

Preliminary comparison shows differences between mass and X-ray substructures

Results inform interpretation of observational discrepancies

Abstract

Various differences in galaxy cluster properties derived from X-ray and weak lensing observations have been highlighted in the literature. One such difference is the observation of mass concentrations in lensing maps which have no X-ray counterparts (e.g. Jee, White, Ford et al. 2005). We investigate this issue by identifying substructures in maps of projected total mass (analogous to weak lensing mass reconstructions) and maps of projected X-ray surface brightness for three simulated clusters. We then compare the 2D mass substructures with both 3D subhalo data and the 2D X-ray substructures. Here we present preliminary results from the first comparison, where we have assessed the impact of projecting the data on subhalo identification.