Constraining the inner density slope of massive galaxy clusters

He, Qiuhan; Li, Hongyu; Li, Ran; Frenk, Carlos S.; Schaller, Matthieu; Barnes, David; Bahé, Yannick; Kay, Scott T.; Gao, Liang; Dalla Vecchia, Claudio
Bibliographical reference

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

Advertised on:
6
2020
Number of authors
10
IAC number of authors
1
Citations
24
Refereed citations
23
Description
We determine the inner density profiles of massive galaxy clusters (M200 > 5 × 1014 M☉) in the Cluster-EAGLE (C-EAGLE) hydrodynamic simulations, and investigate whether the dark matter density profiles can be correctly estimated from a combination of mock stellar kinematical and gravitational lensing data. From fitting mock stellar kinematics and lensing data generated from the simulations, we find that the inner density slopes of both the total and the dark matter mass distributions can be inferred reasonably well. We compare the density slopes of C-EAGLE clusters with those derived by Newman et al. for seven massive galaxy clusters in the local Universe. We find that the asymptotic best-fitting inner slopes of 'generalized' Navarro─Frenk─White (gNFW) profiles, γgNFW, of the dark matter haloes of the C-EAGLE clusters are significantly steeper than those inferred by Newman et al. However, the mean mass-weighted dark matter density slopes of the simulated clusters are in good agreement with the Newman et al. estimates. We also find that the estimate of γgNFW is very sensitive to the constraints from weak lensing measurements in the outer parts of the cluster and a bias can lead to an underestimate of γgNFW.
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Numerical Astrophysics: Galaxy Formation and Evolution
How galaxies formed and evolved through cosmic time is one of the key questions of modern astronomy and astrophysics. Cosmological time- and length-scales are so large that the evolution of individual galaxies cannot be directly observed. Only through numerical simulations can one follow the emergence of cosmic structures within the current
Claudio
Dalla Vecchia