Spectroscopic and X-ray Modeling of the Strong Lensing Galaxy Cluster MACS J0138.0-2155

TL;DR

This study combines X-ray, spectroscopic, and imaging data to model the mass and structure of the galaxy cluster MACS J0138.0-2155, revealing its relaxed state, mass estimates, and galaxy dynamics, with implications for strong lensing analysis.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive multi-wavelength analysis of MACS J0138.0-2155, including mass modeling, galaxy velocity relations, and identification of line-of-sight structures, which are novel in this context.

Findings

Mass estimates: M_500 and M_200 from X-ray and velocity dispersion.

Cluster morphology: relaxed with low ellipticity.

Faber-Jackson relation: slope and scatter with systematic uncertainties.

Abstract

We model the total mass and galactic substructure in the strong lensing galaxy cluster MACS J0138.0-2155 using a combination of Chandra X-ray data, Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) spectroscopy, and Hubble Space Telescope imaging. MACS J0138.0-2155 lenses a source galaxy at $z=1.95$ which hosts two strongly lensed supernovae, Requiem and Encore. We find MACS J0138.0-2155 to have an X-ray temperature of $6.7\pm0.4$ keV and a velocity dispersion of cluster member galaxies of $718^{+132}_{-182}$ km s$^{-1}$. These lead to the mass estimates for the cluster of $M_{500} = 5.2^{+1.5}_{-1.2} \times 10^{14} M_\odot$ from the X-ray results and $M_{200} \approx 3.6^{+2.0}_{-2.7} \times 10 ^{14} M_{\odot}$ from the velocity dispersion results. The round morphology of the X-ray emission indicates that this cluster is relaxed with an ellipticity within the lensing region of $e=0.12\pm0.03$. Using 18 of the brightest, non-blended, quiescent galaxies, we fit the cluster specific Faber-Jackson relation, including a set of 81 variations in the analysis choices to estimate the systematic uncertainties in our results. We find a slope of $\alpha = 0.26 \pm 0.06 (\mathrm{stat.}) \pm 0.03 (\mathrm{sys.})$ with an intrinsic scatter of $\Delta \sigma = 31^{+8}_{-6} (\mathrm{stat.}) \pm 4 (\mathrm{sys.})$ km s$^{-1}$ at a reference velocity dispersion of $\sim 220$ km s$^{-1}$. We also report on significant galaxies along the line-of-sight potentially impacting the lens modeling, including a massive galaxy with stellar velocity dispersion of $236 \pm 3$ km s$^{-1}$ which lies close in projection to the central cluster galaxy. This galaxy is part of a small group at a slightly higher redshift than the cluster.