LoCuSS: Calibrating Mass-Observable Scaling Relations for Cluster Cosmology with Subaru Weak Lensing Observations

TL;DR

This study calibrates galaxy cluster mass-observable relations using Subaru weak lensing and X-ray data, identifying gas mass as the most reliable mass proxy with low scatter, and explores the impact of cluster dynamical state on these relations.

Contribution

It provides the first joint weak-lensing/X-ray calibration of multiple mass proxies for galaxy clusters, highlighting gas mass as the most promising proxy and analyzing the effects of cluster dynamical state.

Findings

Gas mass at .2 appears to be the best mass proxy with lowest scatter.

Undisturbed clusters are more massive than disturbed ones at fixed T and Yx.

Positive correlation found between scatter in M-Mgas and M-T relations.

Abstract

We present a joint weak-lensing/X-ray study of galaxy cluster mass-observable scaling relations, motivated by the critical importance of accurate calibration of mass proxies for future X-ray missions, including eROSITA. We use a sample of 12 clusters at z\simeq0.2 that we have observed with Subaru and XMM-Newton to construct relationships between the weak-lensing mass (M), and three X-ray observables: gas temperature (T), gas mass (Mgas), and quasi-integrated gas pressure (Yx) at overdensities of \Delta=2500, 1000, and 500 with respect to the critical density. We find that Mgas at \Delta\le1000 appears to be the most promising mass proxy of the three, because it has the lowest intrinsic scatter in mass at fixed observable: \sigma_lnM\simeq0.1, independent of cluster dynamical state. The scatter in mass at fixed T and Yx is a factor of \sim2-3 larger than at fixed Mgas, which are indicative of the structural segregation that we find in the M-T and M-Yx relationships. Undisturbed clusters are found to be \sim40% and \sim20% more massive than disturbed clusters at fixed T and Yx respectively at \sim2\sigma significance. In particular, A1914 - a well-known merging cluster - significantly increases the scatter and lowers the the normalization of the relation for disturbed clusters. We also investigated the covariance between intrinsic scatter in M-Mgas and M-T relations, finding that they are positively correlated. This contradicts the adaptive mesh refinement simulations that motivated the idea that Yx may be a low scatter mass proxy, and agrees with more recent smoothed particle hydrodynamic simulations based on the Millennium Simulation. We also propose a method to identify a robust mass proxy based on principal component analysis. The statistical precision of our results are limited by the small sample size and the presence of the extreme merging cluster in our sample.