English

CLASH: Precise New Constraints on the Mass Profile of Abell 2261

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics 2015-06-03 v1

Abstract

We precisely constrain the inner mass profile of Abell 2261 (z=0.225) for the first time and determine this cluster is not "over-concentrated" as found previously, implying a formation time in agreement with {\Lambda}CDM expectations. These results are based on strong lensing analyses of new 16-band HST imaging obtained as part of the Cluster Lensing and Supernova survey with Hubble (CLASH). Combining this with revised weak lensing analyses of Subaru wide field imaging with 5-band Subaru + KPNO photometry, we place tight new constraints on the halo virial mass M_vir = 2.2\pm0.2\times10^15 M\odot/h70 (within r \approx 3 Mpc/h70) and concentration c = 6.2 \pm 0.3 when assuming a spherical halo. This agrees broadly with average c(M,z) predictions from recent {\Lambda}CDM simulations which span 5 <~ <c> <~ 8. Our most significant systematic uncertainty is halo elongation along the line of sight. To estimate this, we also derive a mass profile based on archival Chandra X-ray observations and find it to be ~35% lower than our lensing-derived profile at r2500 ~ 600 kpc. Agreement can be achieved by a halo elongated with a ~2:1 axis ratio along our line of sight. For this elongated halo model, we find M_vir = 1.7\pm0.2\times10^15 M\odot/h70 and c_vir = 4.6\pm0.2, placing rough lower limits on these values. The need for halo elongation can be partially obviated by non-thermal pressure support and, perhaps entirely, by systematic errors in the X-ray mass measurements. We estimate the effect of background structures based on MMT/Hectospec spectroscopic redshifts and find these tend to lower Mvir further by ~7% and increase cvir by ~5%.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1201.1616,
  title  = {CLASH: Precise New Constraints on the Mass Profile of Abell 2261},
  author = {Dan Coe and Keiichi Umetsu and Adi Zitrin and Megan Donahue and Elinor Medezinski and Marc Postman and Mauricio Carrasco and Timo Anguita and Margaret J. Geller and Kenneth J. Rines and Antonaldo Diaferio and Michael J. Kurtz and Larry Bradley and Anton Koekemoer and Wei Zheng and Mario Nonino and Alberto Molino and Andisheh Mahdavi and Doron Lemze and Leopoldo Infante and Sara Ogaz and Peter Melchior and Ole Host and Holland Ford and Claudio Grillo and Piero Rosati and Yolanda Jiménez-Teja and John Moustakas and Tom Broadhurst and Begoña Ascaso and Ofer Lahav and Matthias Bartelmann and Narciso Benítez and Rychard Bouwens and Or Graur and Genevieve Graves and Saurabh Jha and Stephanie Jouvel and Daniel Kelson and Leonidas Moustakas and Dan Maoz and Massimo Meneghetti and Julian Merten and Adam Riess and Steve Rodney and Stella Seitz},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1201.1616},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

Submitted to the Astrophysical Journal. 19 pages, 14 figures