A High-Caliber View of the Bullet Cluster Through JWST Strong and Weak Lensing Analyses

Abstract

The Bullet Cluster (1E 0657-56) is a key astrophysical laboratory for studying dark matter, galaxy cluster mergers, and shock propagation in extreme environments. Using new JWST imaging, we present the highest-resolution mass reconstruction to date, combining 146 strong lensing constraints from 37 systems with high-density (398 sources arcmin${}^{-2}$) weak lensing data, without assuming that light traces mass. The main cluster's mass distribution is highly elongated (NW-SE) and consists of at least three subclumps aligned with the brightest cluster galaxies. The subcluster is more compact but elongated along the E-W direction, with a single dominant peak. We also detect a possible mass and ICL trail extending from the subcluster's eastern side toward the main cluster. Notably, these detailed features are closely traced by the intracluster light, with a modified Hausdorff distance of $19.80\pm 12.46$ kpc. Together with multi-wavelength data, the complex mass distribution suggests that the merger history of the Bullet Cluster may be more complex than previous binary cluster merger scenarios.

11 pages, 5 figures. Published in ApJL

References in corpus (25)

• A direct empirical proof of the existence of dark matter
• EAZY: A Fast, Public Photometric Redshift Code
• Constraints on the Self-Interaction Cross-Section of Dark Matter from Numerical Simulations of the Merging Galaxy Cluster 1E 0657-5
• The non-gravitational interactions of dark matter in colliding galaxy clusters
• Non-linear Least Squares Fitting in IDL with MPFIT
• Strong and weak lensing united III: Measuring the mass distribution of the merging galaxy cluster 1E0657-56
• CEERS Epoch 1 NIRCam Imaging: Reduction Methods and Simulations Enabling Early JWST Science Results
• NuSTAR Observations of the Bullet Cluster: Constraints on Inverse Compton Emission
• The speed of the `bullet' in the merging galaxy cluster 1E0657-56
• An Atlas of MUSE Observations towards Twelve Massive Lensing Clusters
• Principal Component Analysis of the Time- and Position-Dependent Point Spread Function of the Advanced Camera for Surveys
• The MeerKAT Galaxy Cluster Legacy Survey I. Survey Overview and Highlights
• Simulating the Bullet Cluster
• The Cluster-Merger Shock in 1E 0657-56: Faster than the Speeding Bullet?
• Intracluster light is already abundant at redshift beyond unity
• The Transition Region between Brightest Cluster Galaxies and Intra-Cluster Light in Galaxy Groups and Clusters
• Weak-lensing mass bias in merging galaxy clusters
• MARS: A New Maximum Entropy-Regularized Strong Lensing Mass Reconstruction Method
• Back-in-time dynamics of the cluster IE 0657-56 (the Bullet System)
• Surface brightness discontinuities in radio halos. Insights from the MeerKAT Galaxy Cluster Legacy Survey
• MeerKAT's View of the Bullet Cluster 1E 0657-55.8
• Comparison of hydrostatic and dynamical masses of distant X-ray luminous galaxy clusters
• The First Weak-lensing Analysis with the James Webb Space Telescope: SMACS J0723.3-7327
• Model-Independent Mass Reconstruction of the Hubble Frontier Field Clusters with MARS Based on Self-Consistent Strong Lensing Data
• Triggering nuclear and galaxy activity in the Bullet cluster

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Mapping dark matter in the Bullet Cluster using JWST imaging and spectroscopy
• Cosmic Vine: High abundance of massive galaxies and dark matter halos in a forming cluster at z=3.44
• MrMARTIAN: A Multi-resolution Mass Reconstruction Algorithm Combining Free-form and Analytic Components
• Merging Galaxy Clusters and the Search for New Physics of Dark Matter: A Review
• The Redshifts from 122 Bands: Comparative Redshift Forecast for Low-Resolution Spectra from SPHEREx and 7-Dimensional Sky Survey (7DS)
• A short review on joint weak and strong cluster lens-mass reconstruction