The SRG/eROSITA all-sky survey: The morphologies of clusters of galaxies: II. The intrinsic distributions of morphological parameters

TL;DR

This study analyzes the intrinsic morphological parameter distributions of galaxy clusters from the eROSITA survey, revealing evolutionary trends and selection effects, and comparing X-ray and SZ-selected samples.

Contribution

It introduces a Bayesian framework to derive intrinsic morphological distributions accounting for selection biases in the eROSITA cluster sample.

Findings

Concentration correlates positively with luminosity and negatively with redshift.

Ellipticity shows no significant evolution with redshift or luminosity.

X-ray selected clusters tend to have higher concentrations than SZ-selected ones.

Abstract

X-ray selected surveys of clusters of galaxies have been reported to contain more regular cool core clusters compared to samples selected using the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect. Morphology population studies on X-ray selected clusters will be biased without taking into account selection, as cool cores are more easily detected at low redshifts, but can be mistaken for point sources at high redshift. eROSITA, aboard SRG, found over 12000 optically-identified clusters in its first survey, eRASS1. Taking account of the selection function obtained from simulations, we obtain using a Bayesian framework the intrinsic distribution of morphological parameters, including the concentration, central density, cuspiness, ellipticity and slosh. We construct scaling relations for the parameters as a function of redshift (z) and luminosity (LX), and study their distribution within z or LX bins. We find that the concentration in a scaled aperture evolves positively with LX, similarly to the central scaled density, and negatively with z. When using a fixed aperture, its evolution with LX is lower, but also dependent on the choice of cluster centre. The mean ellipticity does not significantly evolve with z or LX. eRASS1 clusters show indications of higher concentrations compared to SZ-selected objects, even after taking account the selection; this suggests that if our X-ray selection model is correct SZ-selected clusters may also suffer from morphological selection effects. We compare different parameter distribution models in bins of z and LX. The distribution of concentration and ellipticity is generally consistent with a normal one, but other parameters such as the central density and cuspiness strongly favour more complex distributions. However, modelling of all clusters as a single population generally prefers non-normal distributions. [abridged]