Revised Mass-to-Light Ratios For Nearby Galaxy Groups and Clusters

TL;DR

This study investigates the stellar mass-to-light ratios in 12 nearby galaxy clusters, revealing systematic discrepancies in estimates and finding no correlation between M*/L and cluster mass or galaxy color fractions, using SDSS and Chandra data.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of M*/L ratios on a galaxy-by-galaxy basis in massive clusters, highlighting systematic differences in estimation methods and their implications.

Findings

No correlation between M*/L and cluster mass.

Systematic discrepancies in stellar mass estimates from different methods.

A Chabrier IMF yields M*/L = 1.7 +/- 0.2 Msun/Lsun.

Abstract

We present a detailed investigation of the cluster stellar mass-to-light (M*/L) ratio and cumulative stellar masses, derived on a galaxy-by-galaxy basis, for 12 massive (M500 ~ 10^14 - 10^15 Msun), nearby clusters with available optical imaging data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 10 and X-ray data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory. Our method involves a statistical cluster membership using both photometric and spectroscopic redshifts when available to maximize completeness whilst minimizing contamination effects. We show that different methods of estimating the stellar mass-to-light ratio from observed photometry result in systematic discrepancies in the total stellar masses and average mass-to-light ratios of cluster galaxies. Nonetheless, all conversion methodologies point to a lack of correlation between M*/Li and total cluster mass, even though low-mass groups contain relatively more blue galaxies. We also find no statistically significant correlation between M*/Li and the fraction of blue galaxies. For the mass range covered by our sample, the assumption of a Chabrier IMF yields an integrated M*/Li = 1.7 +/- 0.2 Msun/Lsun, a lower value than used in most similar studies, though consistent with the study of low-mass galaxy groups by Leauthaud et al. (2012). A light (diet) Salpeter IMF would imply a ~60% increase in M*/Li.