Recent Dynamical Evolution of Galaxy Clusters

Abstract

Evidence is presented for a recent evolution of the relaxation processes in clusters of galaxies, using large optical and X-ray cluster samples. The criteria of the cluster relaxation used are the cluster ellipticity, the ICM temperature and X-ray cluster luminosity. We find evidence of varying strength and significance of all three indicators evolving with redshift for z <0.15. This result supports the view that clusters have mostly stopped undergoing mergers and accreting matter, as expected in a low-Omega_matter Universe, and are now in the process of gravitational relaxation, which reduces their flattening, their ICM temperature (shock heated during the merging phase), and their X-ray luminosity. These results support similar recent claims of Melott, Chambers and Miller (2001).

4 pages, 4 figures accepted for publication in ApJ Lett

References in corpus (5)

• Hydrodynamic simulations of merging clusters of galaxies
• The Cluster Substructure - Alignment Connection
• Multiple Merging Events in the Double Cluster A3128/A3125
• The morphological and dynamical evolution of simulated galaxy clusters
• Recent Dynamical Relaxation of Galaxy Clusters: Evidence for a Low-${\Omega }_m$ Universe

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• Morphological estimators on Sunyaev--Zel'dovich maps of MUSIC clusters of galaxies
• Cluster Ellipticities as a Cosmological Probe
• Shear-Selected Clusters From the Deep Lens Survey III: Masses from Weak Lensing
• Multiwavelength investigations of co-evolution of bright custer galaxies
• The Shape of Galaxy Cluster Dark Matter Haloes: Systematics of Its Imprint on Cluster Gas, and Comparison to Observations
• Probing the evolution of the substructure frequency in galaxy clusters up to z~1
• Richness Dependence of the Recent Evolution of Clusters of Galaxies
• Morphology and Evolution of Simulated and Optical Clusters: A Comparative Analysis
• Eccentricity Evolution in Simulated Galaxy Clusters
• An approximate theory for substructure propagation in clusters
• Simulated Versus Observed Cluster Eccentricity Evolution
• Morphological Redshift Estimates for Galaxy Clusters in a Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect Survey
• CARMA observations of massive Planck-discovered cluster candidates at z>0.5 associated with WISE overdensities: Breaking the size-flux degeneracy
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• CHEX-MATE: Morphological analysis of the sample