Galaxy dynamics in clusters - Raffaella Capasso (OKC)

Wednesday 25 Mar 2020, 13:15 → 14:00 Europe/Stockholm

The phase-space distribution of tracers in galaxy clusters is a powerful tool that can be used to test the mass distribution of dark matter haloes as predicted in large-scale structure cosmological simulations, as well as to provide information about the formation and evolution of cluster member galaxies. 
Exploiting analytical and numerical tools, I analysed the phase-space distribution of gravitationally interacting N-body systems. I performed a dynamical analysis applying the spherically-symmetric Jeans equation, using the cluster’s member galaxies as tracer of its gravitational potential. I will present the results of this study, performed on a sample of 110 Sunyaev-Zel’dovich effect (SZE) selected galaxy clusters from the South Pole Telescope (SPT). I will compare the resulting dynamical masses to theoretical expectations, and examine the bias between between these masses and the masses inferred from the SZE observable in a flat ΛCDM cosmology consistent with Planck CMB data.
Finally, I will show how to extend this analysis to calibrate mass-observable relations, linking the mass of galaxy clusters to readily obtainable observables.