Dark Energy Surveyed Year 1 results: calibration of cluster mis-centring in the redMaPPer catalogues

The centre determination of a galaxy cluster from an optical cluster finding algorithm can be offset from theoretical prescriptions or N-body definitions of its host halo centre. These offsets impact the recovered cluster statistics, affecting both richness measurements and the weak lensing shear profile around the clusters. This paper models the centring performance of the redMaPPer cluster finding algorithm using archival X-ray observations of redMaPPer selected clusters. Assuming the X-ray emission peaks as the fiducial halo centres, and through analysing their offsets to the redMaPPer centres, we find that ∼75 ± 8 per cent of the redMaPPer clusters are well centred and the mis-centred offset follows a Gamma distribution in normalized, projected distance. These mis-centring offsets cause a systematic underestimation of cluster richness relative to the well-centred clusters, for which we propose a descriptive model. Our results enable the DES Y1 cluster cosmology analysis by characterizing the necessary corrections to both the weak lensing and richness abundance functions of the DES Y1 redMaPPer cluster catalogue

Stellar mass as a galaxy cluster mass proxy: application to the Dark Energy Survey redMaPPer clusters

We introduce a galaxy cluster mass observable, μ⋆, based on the stellar masses of cluster members, and we present results for the Dark Energy Survey (DES) Year 1 (Y1) observations. Stellar masses are computed using a Bayesian model averaging method, and are validated for DES data using simulations and COSMOS data. We show that μ⋆ works as a promising mass proxy by comparing our predictions to X-ray measurements. We measure the X-ray temperature–μ_{⋆} relation for a total of 129 clusters matched between the wide-field DES Y1 redMaPPer catalogue and Chandra and XMM archival observations, spanning the redshift range 0.1 < z < 0.7. For a scaling relation that is linear in logarithmic space, we find a slope of α = 0.488 ± 0.043 and a scatter in the X-ray temperature at fixed μ_{*} of σ1nT_{x}|μ_{*} = 0.266_{-0.020}^{+0.019} for the joint sample. By using the halo mass scaling relations of the X-ray temperature from the Weighing the Giants program, we further derive the μ⋆-conditioned scatter in mass, finding σ1nM|μ_{*} = 0.26_{-0.10}^{+0.15}. These results are competitive with well-established cluster mass proxies used for cosmological analyses, showing that μ_{⋆} can be used as a reliable and physically motivated mass proxy to derive cosmological constraints

Dark Energy Survey year 1 results: cosmological constraints from cluster abundances and weak lensing

We perform a joint analysis of the counts and weak lensing signal of redMaPPer clusters selected from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) Year 1 dataset. Our analysis uses the same shear and source photometric redshifts estimates as were used in the DES combined probes analysis. Our analysis results in surprisingly low values for S8=σ8(Ωm/0.3)0.5=0.65±0.04, driven by a low matter density parameter, Ωm=0.179+0.031−0.038, with σ8−Ωm posteriors in 2.4σ tension with the DES Y1 3x2pt results, and in 5.6σ with the Planck CMB analysis. These results include the impact of post-unblinding changes to the analysis, which did not improve the level of consistency with other data sets compared to the results obtained at the unblinding. The fact that multiple cosmological probes (supernovae, baryon acoustic oscillations, cosmic shear, galaxy clustering and CMB anisotropies), and other galaxy cluster analyses all favor significantly higher matter densities suggests the presence of systematic errors in the data or an incomplete modeling of the relevant physics. Cross checks with x-ray and microwave data, as well as independent constraints on the observable-mass relation from Sunyaev-Zeldovich selected clusters, suggest that the discrepancy resides in our modeling of the weak lensing signal rather than the cluster abundance. Repeating our analysis using a higher richness threshold (λ≥30) significantly reduces the tension with other probes, and points to one or more richness-dependent effects not captured by our model