The Ellipticity and Orientation of Clusters of Galaxies from N-Body Experiments

In this study we use simulations of 128$^3$ particles to study the ellipticity and orientation of clusters of galaxies in N-body simulations of differing power-law initial spectra (P(k) \propto k^n ,n = +1, 0, -1, -2$), and density parameters ($\Omega_0 = 0.2$to 1.0). Furthermore, unlike most theoretical studies we mimic most observers by removing all particles which lie at distances greater than 2 1/h Mpc from the cluster center of mass. We computed the axial ratio and the principal axes using the inertia tensor of each cluster. The mean ellipticity of clusters increases strongly with increasing$n$. We also find that clusters tend to become more spherical at smaller radii. We compared the orientation of a cluster to the orientation of neighboring clusters as a function of distance (correlation). In addition, we considered whether a cluster's major axis tends to lie along the line connecting it to a neighboring cluster, as a function of distance (alignment). Both alignments and correlations were computed in three dimensions and in projection to mimic observational surveys. Our results show that significant alignments exist for all spectra at small separations ($D < 15 h^{-1}$Mpc) but drops off at larger distance in a strongly$n-$dependent way.Comment: 22 pages, requires aaspp4.sty, flushrt.sty, and epsf.sty Revised manuscript, accepted for publication in Ap

Alignments of the Dominant Galaxies in Poor Clusters

We have examined the orientations of brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) in poor MKW and AWM clusters and find that, like their counterparts in richer Abell clusters, poor cluster BCGs exhibit a strong propensity to be aligned with the principal axes of their host clusters as well as the surrounding distribution of nearby (< 20/h Mpc) Abell clusters. The processes responsible for dominant galaxy alignments are therefore independent of cluster richness. We argue that these alignments most likely arise from anisotropic infall of material into clusters along large-scale filaments.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure

Einstein Cluster Alignments Revisited

We have examined whether the major axes of rich galaxy clusters tend to point toward their nearest neighboring cluster. We have used the data of Ulmer, McMillan, and Kowalski, who used position angles based on X-ray morphology. We also studied a subset of this sample with updated positions and distances from the MX Northern Abell Cluster Survey (for rich clusters ($R \geq 1$) with well known redshifts). A Kolmogorov-Smirnov (KS) test showed no significant signal for nonrandom angles on any scale $\leq 100h^{-1}$Mpc. However, refining the null hypothesis with the Wilcoxon rank-sum test, we found a high confidence signal for alignment. Confidence levels increase to a high of 99.997% as only near neighbors which are very close are considered. We conclude there is a strong alignment signal in the data, consistent with gravitational instability acting on Gaussian perturbations.Comment: Minor revisions. To be published in Ap

X-ray Galaxy Clusters in NoSOCS: Substructure and the Correlation of Optical and X-ray Properties

We present a comparison of optical and X-ray properties of galaxy clusters in the northern sky. We determine the recovery rate of X-ray detected clusters in the optical as a function of richness, redshift and X-ray luminosity, showing that the missed clusters are typically low contrast systems when observed optically. We employ four different statistical tests to test for the presence of substructure using optical two-dimensional data, finding that approximately 35% of the clusters show strong signs of substructure. However, the results are test-dependent, with variations also due to the magnitude range and radius utilized.We have also performed a comparison of X-ray luminosity and temperature with optical galaxy counts (richness). We find that the slope and scatter of the relations between richness and the X-ray properties are heavily dependent on the density contrast of the clusters. The selection of substructure-free systems does not improve the correlation between X-ray luminosity and richness, but this comparison also shows much larger scatter than one obtained using the X-ray temperature. In the latter case, the sample is significantly reduced because temperature measurements are available only for the most massive (and thus high contrast) systems. However, the comparison between temperature and richness is very sensitive to the exclusion of clusters showing signs of substructure. The correlation of X-ray luminosity and richness is based on the largest sample to date ($\sim$ 750 clusters), while tests involving temperature use a similar number of objects as previous works (\lsim100). The results presented here are in good agreement with existing literature.Comment: 32 pages, 18 figures, ApJ in press, including minor changes following the ApJ's editio

The Nearest Neighbor Alignment of Cluster X-ray Isophotes

We examine the orientations of rich galaxy cluster X-ray isophotes with respect to their rich nearest neighbors using existing samples of Abell cluster position angles measured from {\it Einstein} and {\it ROSAT} observations. We study a merged subset of these samples using updated and improved positions and redshifts for Abell/ACO clusters. We find high confidence for alignment, which increases as nearest neighbor distance is restricted. We conclude that there is a strong alignment signal in all this data, consistent with gravitational instability acting on Gaussian perturbations.Comment: Moderate revisions, including additional test for systematic error. Conclusions unchanged. Accepted for publication in Ap

Two-Temperature Intracluster Medium in Merging Clusters of Galaxies

We investigate the evolution of intracluster medium during a cluster merger, explicitly considering the relaxation process between the ions and electrons by N-body and hydrodynamical simulations. When two subclusters collide each other, a bow shock is formed between the centers of two substructures and propagate in both directions along the collision axis. The shock primarily heats the ions because the kinetic energy of an ion entering the shock is larger than that of an electron by the ratio of masses. In the post-shock region the energy is transported from the ions to electrons via Coulomb coupling. However, since the energy exchange timescale depends both on the gas density and temperature, distribution of electron temperature becomes more complex than that of the plasma mean temperature, especially in the expanding phase. After the collision of two subclusters, gas outflow occurs not only along the collision axis but also in its perpendicular direction. The gas which is originally located in the central part of the subclusters moves both in the parallel and perpendicular directions. Since the equilibrium timescale of the gas along these directions is relatively short, temperature difference between ions and electrons is larger in the directions tilted by the angles of $\pm 45^\circ$ with respect to the collision axis. The electron temperature could be significantly lower that the plasma mean temperature by $\sim 50$ at most. The significance of our results in the interpretation of X-ray observations is briefly discussed.Comment: 20 pages, 11 figures, Accepted for publication in Ap

Cluster Alignments and Ellipticities in LCDM Cosmology

The ellipticities and alignments of clusters of galaxies, and their evolution with redshift, are examined in the context of a Lambda-dominated cold dark matter cosmology. We use a large-scale, high-resolution N-body simulation to model the matter distribution in a light cone containing ~10^6 clusters out to redshifts of z=3. Cluster ellipticities are determined as a function of mass, radius, and redshift, both in 3D and in projection. We find strong cluster ellipticities: the mean ellipticity increases with redshift from 0.3 at z=0 to 0.5 at z=3, for both 3D and 2D ellipticities; the evolution is well-fit by e=0.33+0.05z. The ellipticities increase with cluster mass and with cluster radius; the main cluster body is more elliptical than the cluster cores, but the increase of ellipticities with redshift is preserved. Using the fitted cluster ellipsoids, we determine the alignment of clusters as a function of their separation. We find strong alignment of clusters for separations <100 Mpc/h; the alignment increases with decreasing separation and with increasing redshift. The evolution of clusters from highly aligned and elongated systems at early times to lower alignment and elongation at present reflects the hierarchical and filamentary nature of structure formation. These measures of cluster ellipticity and alignment will provide a new test of the current cosmological model when compared with upcoming cluster surveys.Comment: 29 pages including 13 figures, to appear in ApJ Jan. 2005 (corrected typos, added reference

First Results from the Large Area Lyman Alpha Survey

We report on a new survey for z=4.5 Lyman alpha sources, the Large Area Lyman Alpha (LALA) survey. Our survey achieves an unprecedented combination of volume and sensitivity by using narrow-band filters on the new 8192x8192 pixel CCD Mosaic Camera at the 4 meter Mayall telescope of Kitt Peak National Observatory. Well-detected sources with flux and equivalent width matching known high redshift Lyman alpha galaxies (i.e., observed equivalent width above 80 Angstroms and line+continuum flux between 2.6e-17 and 5.2e-17 erg/cm^2/sec in an 80 Angstrom filter) have an observed surface density corresponding to 11000 +- 700 per square degree per unit redshift at z=4.5. Spatial variation in this surface density is apparent on comparison between counts in 6561 and 6730 Angstrom filters. Early spectroscopic followup results from the Keck telescope included three sources meeting our criteria for good Lyman alpha candidates. Of these, one is confirmed as a z=4.52 source, while another remains consistent with either z=4.55 or z=0.81. We infer that 30 to 50% of our good candidates are bona fide Lyman alpha emitters, implying a net density of about 4000 Lyman alpha galaxies per square degree per unit redshift.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures (3 .ps files), uses AASTeX 4. Submitted to The Astrophysical Journal Letter

The Intrinsic Alignment of Dark Halo Substructures

We investigate the intrinsic alignments of dark halo substructures with their host halo major-axis orientations both analytically and numerically. Analytically, we derive the probability density distribution of the angles between the minor axes of the substructures and the major axes of their host halos from the physical principles, under the assumption that the substructure alignment on galaxy scale is a consequence of the tidal fields of the host halo gravitational potential. Numerically, we use a sample of four cluster-scale halos and their galaxy-scale substructures from recent high-resolution N-body simulations to measure the probability density distribution. We compare the numerical distribution with the analytic prediction, and find that the two results agree with each other very well. We conclude that our analytic model provides a quantitative physical explanation for the intrinsic alignment of dark halo substructures. We also discuss the possibility of discriminating our model from the anisotropic infall scenario by testing it against very large N-body simulations in the future.Comment: accepted version, ApJL in press, minor revision, 12 pages, 2 figure

Cluster Ellipticities as a Cosmological Probe

We investigate the dependence of ellipticities of clusters of galaxies on cosmological parameters using large-scale cosmological simulations. We determine cluster ellipticities out to redshift unity for LCDM models with different mean densities $\Omega_m$ and amplitudes of mass fluctuation $\sigma_{8,0}$. The mean ellipticity increases monotonically with redshift for all models. Larger values of $\sigma_{8,0}$, i.e., earlier cluster formation time, produce lower ellipticities. The dependence of ellipticity on $\Omega_m$ is relatively weak in the range $0.2 \leq \Omega_m \leq 0.5$ for high mass clusters. The mean ellipticity $\bar{e}(z)$ decreases linearly with the amplitude of fluctuations at the cluster redshift $z$, nearly independent of $\Omega_m$; on average, older clusters are more relaxed and are thus less elliptical. The distribution of ellipticities about the mean is approximated by a Gaussian, allowing a simple characterization of the evolution of ellipticity with redshift as a function of cosmological parameters. At $z=0$, the mean ellipticity of high mass clusters is approximated by $\bar{e}(z=0) = 0.248-0.069 \sigma_{8,0} + 0.013 \Omega_{m,0}$. This relation opens up the possibility that, when compared with future observations of large cluster samples, the mean cluster ellipticity and its evolution could be used as a new, independent tool to constrain cosmological parameters, especially the amplitude of mass fluctuations, $\sigma_{8,0}$.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figure