Substructure in redMaPPer clusters and its impact on X-ray morphology and scaling relations

TL;DR

This study investigates how substructure in optical galaxy clusters affects their X-ray morphology and scaling relations, revealing significant correlations especially in high-mass, low-redshift clusters.

Contribution

It introduces a new statistical analysis linking optical substructure with X-ray properties using HDBSCAN and cross-survey data, highlighting the impact of mergers.

Findings

Substructure is present in about 40% of clusters.

Clusters with substructure show more disturbed X-ray morphologies.

Low-redshift, low-richness clusters exhibit higher X-ray luminosity at fixed richness.

Abstract

We statistically quantified the prevalence and properties of substructure in optical galaxy clusters and directly investigated its impact on X-ray morphology and scaling relations, leveraging new data from the DECaLS Legacy Survey and the SRG/eROSITA all-sky survey. We applied the hierarchical density-based clustering algorithm HDBSCAN to the redMaPPer galaxy cluster catalog to identify and characterize substructure from the probabilistic membership assignments. We then cross-matched this sample with the eROSITA X-ray morphology catalog to correlate optical substructure with a comprehensive set of X-ray morphological parameters. Finally, we analyzed the scaling relation between X-ray luminosity and optical richness for clusters with and without substructure. Substructure is a common feature, present in approximately 40% of clusters; a quarter of the full sample exhibits a fractional contribution to richness in excess of 35%. We find a highly significant correlation between optical substructure and disturbed X-ray morphologies, a trend that is strongest for high-mass clusters. The clusters with substructure also drive a stronger redshift evolution in the scatter of the Lx-lambda relation. At low redshifts (z<0.2), they display a systematically higher X-ray luminosity at fixed richness compared to relaxed systems. We attribute the enhanced effect of mergers on X-ray properties at low redshifts to the increased density contrast of low-redshift cool cores and longer substructure survival times, which are possibly due to the suppression of disruptive mixing by effects such as magnetic draping. At lower cluster richness, a discordance between X-ray morphology and the merging state indicates a growing relative importance of active galactic nucleus feedback in governing X-ray morphology.