Evolution of the Merger Induced Hydrostatic Mass Bias in Galaxy Clusters

TL;DR

This study investigates how galaxy cluster mergers influence hydrostatic mass estimates, revealing that post-merger residual motions cause persistent bias which can be corrected for more accurate mass measurements.

Contribution

The paper introduces a correction method for hydrostatic mass bias that accounts for residual bulk motions, improving mass estimates of galaxy clusters.

Findings

Hydrostatic mass bias peaks during mergers due to shocks.

Residual bulk motions cause a persistent bias of 5-10% after relaxation.

The correction method reduces scatter to below 10% in mass estimates.

Abstract

In this work, we examine the effects of mergers on the hydrostatic mass estimate of galaxy clusters using high-resolution Eulerian cosmological simulations. We utilize merger trees to isolate the last merger for each cluster in our sample and follow the time evolution of the hydrostatic mass bias as the systems relax. We find that during a merger, a shock propagates outward from the parent cluster, resulting in an overestimate in the hydrostatic mass bias. After the merger, as a cluster relaxes, the bias in hydrostatic mass estimate decreases but remains at a level of -5-10% with 15-20% scatter within r500. We also investigate the post-merger evolution of the pressure support from bulk motions, a dominant cause of this residual mass bias. At r500, the contribution from random motions peaks at 30% of the total pressure during the merger and quickly decays to \sim 10-15% as a cluster relaxes. Additionally, we use a measure of the random motion pressure to correct the hydrostatic mass estimate. We discover that 4 Gyr after mergers, the direct effects of the merger event on the hydrostatic mass bias have become negligible. Thereafter, the mass bias is primarily due to residual bulk motions in the gas which are not accounted for in the hydrostatic equilibrium equation. We present a hydrostatic mass bias correction method that can recover the unbiased cluster mass for relaxed clusters with 9% scatter at r500 and 11% scatter in the outskirts, within r200.