Back-in-time dynamics of the cluster IE 0657-56 (the Bullet System)

TL;DR

This paper models the dynamics of the Bullet galaxy cluster system, constraining its mass and velocity based on cosmological initial conditions and lensing data, to understand its collision history.

Contribution

It introduces a simplified dynamical model applying the timing argument to the Bullet system, linking mass estimates with observed velocities and lensing measurements.

Findings

System's total mass estimated at 2.8×10^15 h^{-1} M_sun.

Relative speed of 4500 km/s consistent with cosmological conditions.

Mass ratio of 3:1 between main and subcomponent.

Abstract

We present a simplified dynamical model of the ``Bullet'' system of two colliding clusters. The model constrains the masses of the system by requiring that the orbits of the main and sub components satisfy the cosmological initial conditions of vanishing physical separation a Hubble time ago. This is also known as the timing argument. The model considers a system embedded in an over-dense region. We argue that a relative speed of $4500 \rm km/s$ between the two components is consistent with cosmological conditions if the system is of a total mass of $2.8\times 10^{15}h^{-1} M_\odot$ is embedded in a region of a (mild) over-density of 10 times the cosmological background density. Combining this with the lensing measurements of the projected mass, the model yields a ratio of 3:1 for the mass of the main relative to that of the subcomponent. The effect of the background weakens as the relative speed between the two components is decreased. For relative speeds lower than $\sim 3700\rm km/s$, the timing argument yields masses which are too low to be consistent with lensing.