Cluster Infall for Mass Calibration in the Stage-IV Era

TL;DR

This paper develops a model for galaxy cluster infall velocities to improve mass calibration using spectroscopic data, achieving sub-percent precision forecasts for DESI comparable to weak lensing methods.

Contribution

It introduces a calibrated velocity distribution model for dark matter halos on large scales, enabling accurate mass estimates from spectroscopic surveys.

Findings

Model predicts line-of-sight velocity distributions at given radii and masses.

Forecasts sub-percent mass constraints from DESI spectra.

Comparable precision to Stage IV weak lensing surveys.

Abstract

The outskirts of galaxy clusters present a promising avenue for constraining cluster masses in a way that is robust to the impact of baryonic physics. We assess the accuracy to which the cluster infall regions can be used to for cluster mass calibration. Building on previous work, we parameterize the velocity distribution $P(v_{\rm r},v_{\rm tan}|r,M)$ of dark matter halos on scales $r \geq 5\ h^{-1}\ \rm{Mpc}$ as the product of the marginalized distribution $P(v_{\rm r}|r,M)$ and the conditional distribution $P(v_{\rm tan}|v_{\rm r},r,M)$, calibrating the radial and mass dependence of these distributions in numerical simulations. We then project our model along the line-of-sight to obtain accurate predictions for the distributions of line-of-sight velocities at a given projected radius and cluster mass $P(v_{\rm LOS}|R,M)$, which we can observe with spectroscopic survey data. With our model, we forecast that spectra from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) can constrain cluster masses with sub-percent level precision, comparable to that of Stage IV weak lensing surveys.