Related papers: Galaxy cluster merger kinematics by Rees-Sciama ef…
The Rees-Sciama effect produced in mergers of galaxy clusters is discussed, and an analytical approximation to compute this effect from numerical simulations is given. Using this approximation and a novel toy model describing the physics of…
We introduce a new estimator for the mean pairwise velocities of galaxy clusters, which is based on the measurement of the clusters' $\textit{transverse}$ velocity components. The Rees-Sciama (RS) effect offers an opportunity to measure…
Observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) have revealed an unexpected quadrupole-octopole alignment along a preferred axis pointing toward the Virgo cluster. We here investigate whether this feature can be explained in the…
We investigate binary mergers of galaxy clusters, the formation of shocks, and the resulting radio relics using three-dimensional simulations. The initial setup consists of two idealized spherical subclusters with a mass ratio below three,…
We present cross sections and reaction rates for merging to occur during encounters of equal-mass spherical galaxies. As an application, we determine the rate of galaxy merging in clusters of galaxies. We present results for two types of…
Merging galaxies play a key role in galaxy evolution, and progress in our understanding of galaxy evolution is slowed by the difficulty of making accurate galaxy merger identifications. We use GADGET-3 hydrodynamical simulations of merging…
Non-linear growth of structure causes the gravitational potentials to grow with time, and this leaves an imprint on the small-scale temperature fluctuations of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), a signal known as the Rees-Sciama (RS)…
The Red-Sequence Cluster Survey (RCS) is a 100 deg^2 galaxy cluster survey designed to provide a large sample of optically selected clusters of galaxies with redshifts 0.1<z<1.4. The survey data are also useful for a variety of lensing…
Galaxy cluster mergers are representative of a wide range of physics, making them an excellent probe of the properties of dark matter and the ionized plasma of the intracluster medium. To date, most studies have focused on mergers occurring…
To determine the importance of merging galaxies to galaxy evolution, it is necessary to design classification tools that can identify different types and stages of merging galaxies. Previously, using GADGET-3/SUNRISE simulations of merging…
Galaxy mergers are crucial to understanding galaxy evolution, therefore we must determine their observational signatures to select them from large IFU galaxy samples such as MUSE and SAMI. We employ 24 high-resolution idealised…
(abridged) This thesis presents theoretical and statistical techniques broadly related to systems of dynamically-interacting particles composed of several different types of populations. They are applied to observations of dense star…
We measure the fraction of galaxy-galaxy mergers in two clusters at $z\sim2$ using imaging and grism observations from the {\it Hubble Space Telescope}. The two galaxy cluster candidates were originally identified as overdensities of…
X-ray shocks and radio relics detected in the cluster outskirts are commonly interpreted as shocks induced by mergers of sub-clumps. We study the properties of merger shocks in merging galaxy clusters, using a set of cosmological…
Golovich et al. 2017b presents an optical imaging and spectroscopic survey of 29 radio relic merging galaxy clusters. In this paper, we study this survey to identify substructure and quantify the dynamics of the mergers. Using a combined…
We use a new spherical accretion recipe tested on N-body simulations to measure the observed mass accretion rate (MAR) of 129 clusters in the Cluster Infall Regions in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (CIRS) and in the Hectospec Cluster Survey…
Future observations with next generation radio telescopes will help us to understand the presence and the evolution of magnetic fields in galaxy clusters through the determination of the so-called Rotation Measure (RM). In this work, we…
Aims. We aim to perform consistent comparisons between observations and simulations on the mass dependence of the galaxy major merger fraction at low redshift over an unprecedentedly wide range of stellar masses (10^9 to 10^12 solar…
The upcoming XMM Large Scale Structure Survey (XMM-LSS) will ultimately provide a unique mapping of the distribution of X-ray sources in a contiguous 64 sq. deg. region. In particular, it will provide the 3-dimensional location of about 900…
Strong gravitational lensing by irregular mass distributions, such as galaxy clusters, is generally not well quantified by cross sections of analytic mass models. Computationally expensive ray-tracing methods have so far been necessary for…