Friends-of-Friends Groups and Clusters in the 2SLAQ Catalogue

TL;DR

This paper presents a catalogue of galaxy groups and clusters identified using a friends-of-friends algorithm from the 2SLAQ survey, validating their reliability, mass estimates, and clustering properties consistent with cosmological models.

Contribution

The study introduces a new galaxy cluster catalogue from 2SLAQ data using a dynamic friends-of-friends algorithm, with validation and analysis of cluster properties and clustering.

Findings

Catalogue includes 313 clusters with 1,152 galaxies.

Clusters are reliable up to redshift z~0.6.

Cluster clustering matches ΛCDM predictions.

Abstract

We present a catalogue of galaxy groups and clusters selected using a friends-of-friends algorithm with a dynamic linking length from the 2dF-SDSS and QSO (2SLAQ) luminous red galaxy survey. The linking parameters for the code are chosen through an analysis of simulated 2SLAQ haloes. The resulting catalogue includes 313 clusters containing 1,152 galaxies. The galaxy groups and clusters have an average velocity dispersion of sigma_v = 467.97 km/s and an average size of R_clt = 0.78 Mpc/h. Galaxies from regions of one square degree and centred on the galaxy clusters were downloaded from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 6 (SDSS DR6). Investigating the photometric redshifts and cluster red-sequence of these galaxies shows that the galaxy clusters detected with the FoF algorithm are reliable out to z~0.6. We estimate masses for the clusters using their velocity dispersions. These mass estimates are shown to be consistent with 2SLAQ mock halo masses. Further analysis of the simulation haloes shows that clipping out low richness groups with large radii improves the purity of catalogue from 52% to 88%, while retaining a completeness of 94%. Finally, we test the two-point correlation function of our cluster catalogue. We find a best-fitting power law model with parameters r0 = 24\pm4 Mpc/h and gamma = -2.1\pm 0.2, which are in agreement with other low redshift cluster samples and consistent with a {\Lambda}CDM universe.