ALMA-SZ Detection of a Galaxy Cluster Merger Shock at Half the Age of the Universe

TL;DR

This paper reports the first ALMA-SZ detection of a galaxy cluster merger shock at high redshift, combining multi-wavelength data to constrain shock properties and magnetic fields, demonstrating ALMA's potential for studying distant clusters.

Contribution

It presents the first ALMA-SZ measurement of a galaxy cluster merger shock at half the universe's age, providing new constraints on shock Mach number and magnetic fields at high redshift.

Findings

Shock Mach number ${ m M} = 2.4^{+1.3}_{-0.6}$

High magnetic field strength of 4-10 μG

First high-redshift direct detection of a cluster shock with ALMA-SZ

Abstract

We present ALMA measurements of a merger shock using the thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect signal, at the location of a radio relic in the famous El Gordo galaxy cluster at $z \approx 0.9$. Multi-wavelength analysis in combination with the archival Chandra data and a high-resolution radio image provides a consistent picture of the thermal and non-thermal signal variation across the shock front and helps to put robust constraints on the shock Mach number as well as the relic magnetic field. We employ a Bayesian analysis technique for modeling the SZ and X-ray data self-consistently, illustrating respective parameter degeneracies. Combined results indicate a shock with Mach number ${\cal M} = 2.4^{+1.3}_{-0.6}$, which in turn suggests a high value of the magnetic field (of the order of $4-10 ~\mu$G) to account for the observed relic width at 2 GHz. At roughly half the current age of the universe, this is the highest-redshift direct detection of a cluster shock to date, and one of the first instances of an ALMA-SZ observation in a galaxy cluster. It shows the tremendous potential for future ALMA-SZ observations to detect merger shocks and other cluster substructures out to the highest redshifts.