Chandra Observations of the Planck ESZ Sample: A Re-Examination of Masses and Mass Proxies

TL;DR

This study uses Chandra X-ray data to re-examine galaxy cluster masses and proxies from the Planck catalog, reducing scatter and confirming the consistency of different mass estimates and their relations.

Contribution

It provides a refined analysis of cluster mass proxies by re-extracting Planck measurements with improved X-ray positions, reducing scatter, and analyzing the $Y_{SZ}$-$Y_{X}$ relation with simulations.

Findings

Reduced scatter in $M_{500}^{SZ}$-$M_{500}^{X}$ relation by a factor of two.

The $Y_{SZ}/Y_{X}$ ratio is 0.88, indicating low clumpiness.

The $Y_{SZ}$-$Y_{X}$ flux relation slope is 0.89, less than unity, unaffected by selection biases.

Abstract

Using Chandra observations, we derive the $Y_{\rm X}$ proxy and associated total mass measurement, $M_{500}^{\rm Y_X}$, for 147 clusters with $z \leq 0.35$ from the Planck Early Sunyaev-Zel'dovich catalog, and for 80 clusters with $z \leq 0.30$ from an X-ray flux-limited sample. We re-extract the Planck $Y_{\rm SZ}$ measurements and obtain the corresponding mass proxy, $M_{500}^{\rm SZ}$, from the full Planck mission maps, minimizing the Malmquist bias due to observational scatter. The masses re-extracted using the more precise X-ray position and characteristic size agree with the published PSZ2 values, but yield a significant reduction in the scatter (by a factor of two) in the $M_{500}^{\rm SZ}$-$M_{500}^{\rm X}$ relation. The slope is $0.93\pm0.03$, and the median ratio, $M_{500}^{\rm SZ}/M_{500}^{\rm X}= 0.91\pm0.01$, is within the expectations from known X-ray calibration systematics. The $Y_{\rm SZ}/Y_{\rm X}$ ratio is $0.88\pm0.02$, in good agreement with predictions from cluster structure, and implying a low level of clumpiness. In agreement with the findings of the Planck Collaboration, the slope of the $Y_{\rm SZ}$-$D_{\rm A}^{-2} Y_{X}$ flux relation is significantly less than unity ($0.89\pm0.01$). Using extensive simulations, we show that this result is not due to selection effects, intrinsic scatter, or covariance between quantities. We demonstrate analytically that changing the $Y_{\rm SZ}$-$Y_{X}$ relation from apparent flux to intrinsic properties results in a best-fit slope that is closer to unity and increases the dispersion about the relation. The redistribution resulting from this transformation implies that the best fit parameters of the $M_{500}^{\rm SZ}$-$M_{500}^{\rm X}$ relation will be sample-dependent.