Temperature measurements with the relativistic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect

TL;DR

This paper explores how relativistic effects influence the thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich spectrum at high temperatures, enabling independent measurements of intracluster medium temperatures and highlighting biases in non-relativistic estimates.

Contribution

It introduces a method to account for relativistic effects in SZ measurements, improving temperature estimates of galaxy clusters beyond traditional X-ray methods.

Findings

Relativistic effects cause significant spectral changes at temperatures above 5 keV.

Ignoring relativistic effects biases the Compton-y parameter estimates.

Future observations can accurately measure cluster temperatures using this relativistic SZ approach.

Abstract

At temperatures above ~5 keV, the non-relativistic approximation used to derive the classical thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect spectrum begins to fail. When relativistic effects are included, the spectrum becomes temperature-dependent. This leads to both a problem and an opportunity: a problem, because when the temperature dependence is not accounted for the Compton-y estimate is biased; and an opportunity, because it represents a new way to measure the temperature of the intracluster medium independently of X-ray observations. This work presents current results from investigating the impact of relativistic effects on Planck cluster observations, and projections for future measurements of cluster temperatures using the Atacama Large Aperture Sub-millimetre Telescope.