English

An Active Galaxy Cluster Merger at Cosmic Noon Revealed by JWST Weak Lensing and Multiwavelength Probes

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2026-02-06 v2 Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics

Abstract

The galaxy cluster XLSSC~122 is a rare system at z=1.98z = 1.98, hosting surprisingly evolved member galaxies when the Universe was only one-third of its present age. Leveraging deep JWST/NIRCam imaging, we perform a weak-lensing analysis and reconstruct the cluster's mass distribution, finding a mass peak that coincides with both the X-ray peak and the position of the brightest cluster galaxy. We obtain a mass estimate of M200c=1.6±0.3×1014 MM_{200\rm c}=1.6 \pm 0.3\times 10^{14}~M_{\odot} and a concentration of c200c=6.3±0.3c_{200 \rm c}=6.3 \pm 0.3 implied by the preferred concentration--mass relation, in agreement with recent strong-lensing estimates. The high concentration in particular motivates tests against empirical and simulation-derived concentration--mass relations. Placing our weak-lensing mass map in the context of Chandra X-ray data, MeerKAT radio imaging, ALMA+ACA/ACT Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) mapping, and new JWST intracluster light measurements, we identify consistent NE--SW elongation across datasets and a pronounced offset along the same axis between the SZ and mass/X-ray peaks, pointing to significant merger activity. XLSSC~122 thus serves as a JWST pilot study for high-zz lensing, demonstrating the telescope's unique ability to map cluster mass distributions at z2z\sim 2 and motivating a uniform sample of analogous systems with joint lensing, X-ray, SZ, and radio data to probe cluster assembly at cosmic noon.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2512.11022,
  title  = {An Active Galaxy Cluster Merger at Cosmic Noon Revealed by JWST Weak Lensing and Multiwavelength Probes},
  author = {Zachary P. Scofield and Kyle Finner and Hyungjin Joo and M. James Jee and Wonki Lee and Sangjun Cha and Jinhyub Kim and Yu-Heng Lin and Ranga-Ram Chary and Andreas Faisst and Bomee Lee},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2512.11022},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

17 pages, 6 figures. Revised in response to referee comments; minor clarifications. submitted to ApJL