New High-Resolution Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Observations with GBT+MUSTANG

TL;DR

This paper reports high-resolution Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect observations of galaxy clusters with MUSTANG on the Green Bank Telescope, revealing complex gas structures and shock features, and demonstrating the method's complementarity with X-ray and radio data.

Contribution

First high-resolution SZE imaging with MUSTANG on GBT revealing detailed pressure substructures in merging galaxy clusters.

Findings

Detected shocked gas in MACS J0744.8+3927 previously unseen in X-ray

Showed complementarity of SZE with X-ray and radio observations

Observed correlation between radio emission and SZE in RX J1347.5-1145

Abstract

We present recent high angular resolution (9") Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect (SZE) observations with MUSTANG, a 90-GHz bolometric receiver on the Green Bank Telescope. MUSTANG has now imaged several massive clusters of galaxies in some of the highest-resolution SZE imaging to date, revealing complex pressure substructure within the hot intra-cluster gas in merging clusters. We focus on three merging, intermediate redshift clusters here: MACS J0744.8+3927, MACS J0717.5+3745, RX J1347.5-1145. In one of these merging clusters, MACS J0744.8+3927, the MUSTANG observation has revealed shocked gas that was previously undetected in X-ray observations. Our preliminary results for MACS J0717.5+3745 demonstrate the complementarity these observations provide when combined with X-ray observations of the thermal emission and radio observations of the non-thermal emission. And finally, by revisiting RX J1347.5-1145, we note an inter- esting correlation between its radio emission and the SZE data. While observations of the thermal SZE probe the line of sight integral of thermal electron pressure through a cluster, these redshift independent observations hold great potential for aiding the interpretation of non-thermal astrophysics in high-z clusters.