Subaru Weak-Lensing Survey of Dark Matter Subhalos in the Coma Cluster : Subhalo Mass Function and Statistical Properties

TL;DR

This study uses Subaru weak-lensing data to measure subhalo masses in the Coma cluster, revealing their properties, mass function, and tidal effects, consistent with cold dark matter predictions.

Contribution

First detailed weak-lensing analysis of subhalos in the nearby Coma cluster, measuring their masses, truncation radii, and mass function in a model-independent way.

Findings

Subhalo masses and sizes decrease toward the cluster center.

Subhalo mass function follows a power law with slope ~1, matching CDM predictions.

Lensing signals are complex but well-explained by multiple mass components.

Abstract

We present a 4 deg^2 weak gravitational lensing survey of subhalos in the very nearby Coma cluster using the Subaru/Suprime-Cam. The large apparent size of cluster subhalos allows us to measure the mass of 32 subhalos detected in a model-independent manner, down to the order of 10^-3 of the virial mass of the cluster. Weak-lensing mass measurements of these shear-selected subhalos enable us to investigate subhalo properties and the correlation between subhalo masses and galaxy luminosities for the first time. The mean distortion profiles stacked over subhalos show a sharply truncated feature which is well-fitted by a Navarro-Frenk-White (NFW) mass model with the truncation radius, as expected due to tidal destruction by the main cluster. We also found that subhalo masses, truncation radii, and mass-to-light ratios decrease toward the cluster center. The subhalo mass function, dn/dln M_sub, in the range of 2 orders of magnitude in mass, is well described by a single power law or a Schechter function. Best-fit power indices of 1.09_-0.32^+0.42 for the former model and 0.99_-0.23^+0.34 for the latter, are in remarkable agreement with slopes of ~0.9-1.0 predicted by the cold dark matter paradigm. The tangential distortion signals in the radial range of 0.02-2Mpc/h from the cluster center show a complex structure which is well described by a composition of three mass components of subhalos, the NFW mass distribution as a smooth component of the main cluster, and a lensing model from a large scale structure behind the cluster. Although the lensing signals are 1 order of magnitude lower than those for clusters at z~0.2, the total signal-to-noise ratio, S/N=13.3, is comparable to, or higher, because the enormous number of background source galaxies compensates for the low lensing efficiency of the low lensing efficiency of the nearby cluster.