Candidate high-z proto-clusters among the Planck compact sources, as revealed by Herschel-SPIRE

TL;DR

This study identifies 27 candidate high-redshift proto-clusters among Planck sources using Herschel data, revealing their properties, distribution, and potential for understanding early galaxy cluster formation.

Contribution

It provides the first large-scale identification and characterization of high-z proto-cluster candidates from Planck and Herschel data, highlighting their brightness and distribution.

Findings

27 candidate proto-clusters identified

Surface density of proto-clusters is (3.3 ± 0.7) x 10^(-2) deg^(-2)

Candidate proto-clusters are brighter than simulations predict

Abstract

By determining the nature of all the Planck compact sources within 808.4 deg^2 of large Herschel surveys, we have identified 27 candidate proto-clusters of dusty star forming galaxies (DSFGs) that are at least 3{\sigma} overdense in either 250, 350 or 500 $\mu$mm sources. We find roughly half of all the Planck compact sources are resolved by Herschel into multiple discrete objects, with the other half remaining unresolved by Herschel. We find a significant difference between versions of the Planck catalogues, with earlier releases hosting a larger fraction of candidate proto-clusters and Galactic Cirrus than later releases, which we ascribe to a difference in the filters used in the creation of the three catalogues. We find a surface density of DSFG candidate proto-clusters of (3.3 $\pm$ 0.7) x 10^(-2) sources deg^(-2), in good agreement with previous similar studies. We find that a Planck colour selection of S_{857}/S_{545} < 2 works well to select candidate proto-clusters, but can miss proto-clusters at z < 2. The Herschel colours of individual candidate proto-cluster members indicate our candidate proto-clusters all likely all lie at z > 1. Our candidate proto-clusters are a factor of 5 times brighter at 353 GHz than expected from simulations, even in the most conservative estimates. Further observations are needed to confirm whether these candidate proto-clusters are physical clusters, multiple proto-clusters along the line of sight, or chance alignments of unassociated sources.