Dynamical cluster masses from photometric surveys

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel dynamical method to measure galaxy cluster masses using the satellite distribution's radial profile, validated with survey data, and constrains gravity theories at large scales.

Contribution

It presents an innovative approach based on splashback features for dynamical mass estimation from photometric surveys, avoiding velocity data.

Findings

Validated the method with KiDS survey data.

Combined dynamical and lensing masses to test gravity theories.

Excluded significant deviations from General Relativity.

Abstract

The masses of galaxy clusters can be measured using data obtained exclusively from wide photometric surveys in one of two ways: directly from the amplitude of the weak lensing signal or, indirectly, through the use of scaling relations calibrated using binned lensing measurements. In this paper, we build on a recently proposed idea and implement an alternative method based on the radial profile of the satellite distribution. This technique relies on splashback, a feature associated with the apocenter of recently accreted galaxies that offers a clear window into the phase-space structure of clusters without the use of velocity information. We carry out this dynamical measurement using the stacked satellite distribution around a sample of luminous red galaxies in the fourth data release of the Kilo-Degree Survey and validate our results using abundance-matching and lensing masses. To illustrate the power of this measurement, we combine dynamical and lensing mass estimates to robustly constrain scalar-tensor theories of gravity at cluster scales. Our results exclude departures from General Relativity of order unity. We conclude the paper by discussing the implications for future data sets. Because splashback mass measurements scale only with the survey volume, stage-IV photometric surveys are well-positioned to use splashback to provide high-redshift cluster masses.