Related papers: High Redshift Galaxy Clusters as Probes of Cosmolo…
The number density of galaxy clusters across mass and redshift has been established as a powerful cosmological probe. Cosmological analyses with galaxy clusters traditionally employ scaling relations. However, many challenges arise from…
We review the methods adopted to reconstruct the mass profiles in X-ray luminous galaxy clusters. We discuss the limitations and the biases affecting these measurements and how these mass profiles can be used as cosmological proxies.
In this contribution the ongoing effort to build a statistical sample of clusters of galaxies over a wide range of redshifts to study the evolution of clusters and member galaxies is reviewed. The starting point for this project has been…
The selection of clusters of galaxies through their X-ray emission has proved to be an extremely powerful technique over the past four decades. The growth of X-ray astronomy has provided the community with a steadily more detailed view of…
We report on our search for distant clusters of galaxies based on optical and X-ray follow up observations of X-ray candidates from the SHARC survey. Based on the assumption that the absence of bright optical or radio counterparts to…
This contribution illustrates the study of galaxy clusters as astrophysical laboratories as well as probes for the large-scale structure of the Universe. Using the REFLEX Cluster Survey, the measurement of the statistics of the large-scale…
As the largest gravitationally bound structures known, clusters provide clear constraints on the formation of structure and on the composition of the universe. Despite their extreme importance for cosmology the number of clusters at high…
In this manuscript I review the mathematics and physics that underpins recent work using the clustering of galaxies to derive cosmological model constraints. I start by describing the basic concepts, and gradually move on to some of the…
We describe the results of observations of galaxy clusters conducted with ISOCAM on-board the Infrared Space Observatory. Our research is aimed at understanding the processes driving galaxy evolution in dense environments, free from the…
In order to study the status and the possible evolution of clusters of galaxies at intermediate redshifts (z ~ 0.1 - 0.3), as well as their spatial correlation and relationship with the local environment, we built a sample of candidate…
High redshift (z >~ 1) clusters are ideal probes to study the formation and evolution of large scale structures and galaxies in the universe. A 10-m class ground based telescope, X-ray observatories (Chandra, XMM-Newton) and HST/ACS are…
We present a description of the observations and data reduction procedures for an extensive spectroscopic and multi-band photometric study of nine high redshift, optically-selected cluster candidates. The primary goal of the survey is to…
Clusters of galaxies are important targets in observationally cosmology, as they can be used both to study the evolution of the galaxies themselves and to constrain cosmological parameters. Here we report on the first results of a major…
We present the first high redshift (0.3 < z < 1.1) galaxy clusters found by systematically identifying optical low surface brightness fluctuations in the background sky. Using spectra obtained with the Keck telescope and I-band images from…
X-ray observations of clusters provide key information on the dark matter, on the formation of structures in the Universe, and can be used to constrain the cosmological parameters. I review our current knowledge, with emphasis on recent XMM…
Numerous methods for finding clusters at moderate to high redshifts have been proposed in recent years, at wavelengths ranging from radio to X-rays. In this paper we describe a new method for detecting clusters in two-band optical/near-IR…
We present first results on the use of a colour space filter for detecting galaxy clusters at cosmological redshifts in the XMM Large Scale Structure Survey. All clusters studied, but one, are successfully colour--detected in spite of their…
The XMM Cluster Archive Super Survey (X-CLASS) is a serendipitously-detected X-ray-selected sample of 845 galaxy clusters based on 2774 XMM archival observations and covering approximately 90 deg$^2$ spread across the high-Galactic latitude…
Motivated by recent suggestions that a number of observed galaxy clusters have masses which are too high for their given redshift to occur naturally in a standard model cosmology, we use Extreme Value Statistics to construct confidence…
Globular star clusters are extremely important astrophysical objects since (1) they are prime laboratories for testing stellar evolution; (2) they are ``fossils'' from the epoch of galaxy formation, and thus important cosmological tools;…