The dark matter halo concentration and stellar initial mass function of a CASSOWARY group

TL;DR

This study combines multiple observational techniques to measure the dark matter halo properties and stellar initial mass function of a galaxy group, finding good agreement with simulations and supporting a Salpeter IMF.

Contribution

It provides a novel multi-probe analysis of a galaxy group's dark matter halo and stellar mass, confirming consistency with cosmological simulations at the group scale.

Findings

Dark matter halo mass: log_10 M_200/M_sun = 14.2 +/- 0.2

Halo concentration: c_200 = 4.4 (+1.6, -1.4)

Stellar mass-to-light ratio favors a Salpeter IMF

Abstract

We exploit the group environment of the CAmbridge Sloan Survey Of Wide ARcs in the skY (CASSOWARY) z=0.3 lens J2158+0257 to measure the group dynamical mass as a complement to the central dynamical and lensing mass constraints. Follow-up spectroscopy of candidate group members is performed using VLT/FORS2. From the resulting N=21 confirmed members we measure the group dynamical mass by calibrating an analytic tracer mass estimator with cosmological simulations. The luminosity weighted line-of-sight velocity dispersion and the Einstein radius of the lens are used as mass probes in the inner regions of the galaxy. Combining these three observational probes allows us to independently constrain the mass and concentration of the dark matter halo, in addition to the total stellar mass of the central galaxy. We find a dark matter halo in remarkably good agreement with simulations (log_10 M_200/M_sun = 14.2 +/- 0.2, c_200 = 4.4 (+1.6, -1.4)) and a stellar mass-to-light ratio which favors a Salpeter initial mass function ((M/L)* = 5.7 +/- 1.2). Our measurement of a normal halo concentration suggests that there is no discrepancy between simulations and observations at the group mass scale. This is in contrast to the cluster mass scale for which a number of studies have claimed over-concentrated halos. While the halo mass is robustly determined, and the halo concentration is not significantly affected by systematics, the resulting stellar mass-to-light ratio is sensitive to the choice of stellar parameters, such as density profile and velocity anisotropy.