Richness-based masses of rich and famous galaxy clusters

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new galaxy cluster mass catalog based on a calibrated richness measure, providing more precise mass estimates for hundreds of clusters in the SDSS footprint, with improved accuracy over other proxies.

Contribution

The work presents a novel richness-based mass estimation method with small scatter and known evolution, applied to a large sample of galaxy clusters, and provides a publicly accessible catalog with detailed diagnostics.

Findings

Mass estimates with 0.16 dex precision using richness.

Catalog includes 275 clusters with masses >10^14 M_sun.

Improved cluster centers and redshifts through inspection.

Abstract

We present a catalog of galaxy cluster masses derived by exploiting the tight correlation between mass and richness, i.e., a properly computed number of bright cluster galaxies. The richness definition adopted in this work is properly calibrated, shows a small scatter with mass, and has a known evolution, which means that we can estimate accurate ($0.16$ dex) masses more precisely than by adopting any other richness estimates or X-ray or SZ-based proxies based on survey data. We measured a few hundred galaxy clusters at $0.05<z<0.22$ in the low-extinction part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey footprint that are in the 2015 catalog of Planck-detected clusters, that have a known X-ray emission, that are in the Abell catalog, or that are among the most most cited in the literature. Diagnostic plots and direct images of clusters are individually inspected and we improved cluster centers and, when needed, we revised redshifts. Whenever possible, we also checked for indications of contamination from other clusters on the line of sight, and found ten such cases. All this information, with the derived cluster mass values, are included in the distributed value-added cluster catalog of the 275 clusters with a derived mass larger than $10^{14}$ M$_{\odot}$. A web front-end is available at http://www.brera.mi.astro.it/$\sim$andreon/famous.html . Finally, in a technical appendix we illustrate with Planck clusters how to minimize the sensitivity of comparisons between masses listed in different catalogs to the specific overlapping of the considered subsamples, a problem recognized