Dust in clusters: separating the contribution of galaxies and intracluster media

TL;DR

This study uses Herschel data to set strict upper limits on intracluster dust emission, revealing a significant deficiency compared to the Milky Way and indicating declining star formation in galaxy clusters over the last 6 billion years.

Contribution

First to constrain intracluster dust emission and mass using Herschel data across a large galaxy cluster sample, revealing a deficiency in gas-to-dust ratio and star formation evolution.

Findings

Upper limits on dust emission at 250, 350, 500 μm

Dust mass less than 10^9 solar masses

Star formation rate declines with redshift

Abstract

We have analized a sample of 327 clusters of galaxies spanning the range 0.06-0.70 in redshift. Strong constraints on their mean intracluster emission by dust have been obtained using maps and catalogs from the HERSCHEL HerMES project; within a radius of 5 arcmin centered in each cluster, the 95% C.L. limits obtained are 86.6, 48.2 and 30.9 mJy at the observed frequencies of 250, 350 and 500 $\mu$m. From these restrictions, and assuming physical parameters typical of interstellar media in the Milky Way, we have obtained tight upper limits on the visual extinction of background galaxies due to the intracluster media: $A_V$(95% C.L.) <~$10^{-3}$ mags. Strong constraints are also obtained for the mass of such dust; for instance using the data at 350 $\mu$m we establish a 95% upper limit of $<10^9M_\odot$ within a circle with a radius of 5 arcmin centered in the clusters. This corresponds to a fraction of the total mass of the clusters of $9.5\times 10^{-6}$, and indicates a deficiency in the gas-to-dust ratio in the intracluster media by about three orders of magnitude as regards the value found in the Milky Way. Computing the total infrared luminosity of the clusters in three ranges of redshift (0.05-0.24, 0.24-0.42 and 0.42-0.71) and two ranges of mass ($<10^{14}$ and $>10^{14}M_\odot$) respectively, a strong evolution of luminosity in redshift ($L\sim z^{1.5}$) for both ranges of masses is found. The results indicate a strong declining in star formation rate with time in the last $\sim 6$ Gyr.