Related papers: Clusters of Galaxies: Diagnostic Tools for Cosmolo…
We investigate the evolution of clusters of galaxies in a sample of distant clusters with redshifts between 0.3 and 1.0. We show the abilities and limitations of combined ROSAT and ASCA data to draw cosmological conclusions. For the first…
Over the coming decade, the observational samples available for studies of cluster abundance evolution will increase from tens to hundreds, or possibly to thousands, of clusters. Here we assess the power of future surveys to determine…
These lectures cover various aspects of the statistical description of cosmological density fields. Observationally, this consists of the point process defined by galaxies, and the challenge is to relate this to the continuous density field…
It is currently impossible to determine the abundances and ages of the stellar populations of distant, dense stellar systems star by star. Therefore, methods to analyze the composite light of stellar systems are required. I review the…
The accelerating expansion of the Universe at recent epochs has called into question the validity of general relativity on cosmological scales. One probe of gravity is a comparison of expansion history of the Universe with the history of…
X-ray observations of clusters at different redshifts are presented and compared. For the nearest cluster -- the Virgo cluster -- we show a comparison of the galaxy distribution and the distribution of the intra-cluster gas. Although the…
Cosmography and galaxy clusters are discussed in the framework of f(R)-gravity giving a comprehensive review of recent results.
We propose a new cosmological test of gravity, by using the observed mass fraction of X-ray emitting gas in massive galaxy clusters. The cluster gas fraction, believed to be a fair sample of the average baryon fraction in the Universe, is a…
Forthcoming large galaxy cluster surveys will yield tight constraints on cosmological models. It has been shown that in an idealized survey, containing > 10,000 clusters, statistical errors on dark energy and other cosmological parameters…
Large surveys of the local Universe have shown that galaxies with different intrinsic properties, such as colour, luminosity and morphological type display a range of clustering amplitudes. Galaxies are therefore not faithful tracers of the…
Long arcs in clusters of galaxies, produced by gravitational lensing, can be used to estimate the mass interior to the arcs and therefore, constrain the cluster mass distribution. The radial density distribution of the intracluster gas…
Galaxy groups are more than an intermediate scale between clusters and halos hosting individual galaxies, they are crucial laboratories capable of testing a range of astrophysics from how galaxies form and evolve to large scale structure…
The alignment of clusters of galaxies with their nearest neighbours and between clusters within a supercluster is investigated using simulations of 512^{3} dark matter particles for \LambdaCDM and \tauCDM cosmological models. Strongly…
Despite compelling theoretical arguments, the use of clusters as cosmological probes is, in practice, frequently questioned because of the many uncertainties impinging on cluster mass estimates. Our aim is to develop a fully self-consistent…
Clusters of galaxies generally form by the gravitational merger of smaller clusters and groups. Major cluster mergers are the most energetic events in the Universe since the Big Bang. The basic properties of cluster mergers and their…
Analyses of Chandra's first images of cooling flow clusters find smaller cooling rates than previously thought. Cooling may be occurring preferentially near regions of star formation in central cluster galaxies, where the local cooling and…
We discuss several problems that can be solved by measuring the proper motions of galaxies in clusters of galaxies, something that should be feasible in the Next Generation Very Large Array era. First, in the Virgo Cluster, the Laser…
Galaxy clusters trace the highest density peaks in the large-scale structure of the Universe. Their clustering provides a powerful probe that can be exploited in combination with cluster mass measurements to strengthen the cosmological…
We review the theory of the formation of galaxy clusters and discuss their role as cosmological probes. We begin with the standard cosmological framework where we discuss the origin of the CDM matter power spectrum and the growth of density…
This paper reviews some recent work on the properties of the outer halos of galaxies. I particularly focus on recent and upcoming advances made with the study of globular clusters. Globular clusters can be observed out to ~100 kpc from the…