A gravitational lensing detection of filamentary structures connecting luminous red galaxies

We present a weak lensing detection of filamentary structures in the cosmic web, combining data from the Kilo-Degree Survey, the Red Cluster Sequence Lensing Survey, and the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Lensing Survey. The line connecting luminous red galaxies with a separation of 3 − 5 h−1 Mpc was chosen as a proxy for the location of filaments. We measured the average weak lensing shear around ∼11 000 candidate filaments selected in this way from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. After nulling the shear induced by the dark matter haloes around each galaxy, we reported a 3.4σ detection of an anisotropic shear signal from the matter that connects them. Adopting a filament density profile, motivated from N-body simulations, the average density at the centre of these filamentary structures was found to be 15 ± 4 times the critical density

Studying galaxy troughs and ridges using weak gravitational lensing with the Kilo-Degree Survey

We study projected underdensities in the cosmic galaxy density field known as ‘troughs’, and their overdense counterparts, which we call ‘ridges’. We identify these regions using a bright sample of foreground galaxies from the photometric Kilo-Degree Survey (KiDS), specifically selected to mimic the spectroscopic Galaxy And Mass Assembly survey. Using background galaxies from KiDS, we measure the weak gravitational lensing profiles of the troughs/ridges. We quantify the amplitude of their lensing strength A as a function of galaxy density percentile rank P and galaxy overdensity δ, and find that the skewness in the galaxy density distribution is reflected in the total mass distribution measured by weak lensing. We interpret our results using the mock galaxy catalogue from the Marenostrum Institut de Ciències de l’Espai (MICE) simulation, and find a good agreement with our observations. Using signal-to-noise weights derived from the Scinet LIghtCone Simulations (SLICS) mock catalogue we optimally stack the lensing signal of KiDS troughs with an angular radius θA={5,10,15,20}arcmin⁠, resulting in {16.8,14.9,10.13,7.55}σ detections. Finally, we select troughs using a volume-limited sample of galaxies, split into two redshift bins between 0.1 < z < 0.3. For troughs/ridges with transverse comoving radius RA=1.9h−170Mpc⁠, we find no significant difference in the comoving excess surface density as a function of P and δ between the low- and high-redshift sample. Using the MICE and SLICS mocks we predict that trough and ridge evolution could be detected with gravitational lensing using deeper and wider lensing surveys, such as those from the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope and Euclid

Complex diffuse emission in the z = 0.52 cluster PLCK G004.5-19.5

We present radio observations of the galaxy cluster PLCK G004.5-19.5 (z = 0.52) using the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope at 150 MHz, 325 MHz, and 610 MHz. We find an unusual arrangement of diffuse radio emission in the center and periphery of the cluster, as well as several radio galaxies with head-tail emission. A patch of peripheral emission resembles a radio relic, and central emission resembles a radio halo. Reanalysis of archival XMM-Newton X-ray data shows that PLCK G004.5-19.5 is disturbed, which has a known correlation with the existence of radio relics and halos. Given that the number of known radio halos and radio relics at z &gt; 0.5 is very limited, PLCK G004.5-19.5 is an important addition to understanding merger-related particle acceleration at higher redshifts

Multiwavelength scaling relations in galaxy groups: a detailed comparison of GAMA and KiDS observations to BAHAMAS simulations

We study the scaling relations between the baryonic content and total mass of groups of galaxies, as these systems provide a unique way to examine the role of non-gravitational processes in structure formation. Using Planck and ROSAT data, we conduct detailed comparisons of the stacked thermal Sunyaev-Zel’dovich (tSZ) and X-ray scaling relations of galaxy groups found in the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey and the BAHAMAS hydrodynamical simulation. We use weak gravitational lensing data from the Kilo Degree Survey to determine the average halo mass of the studied systems. We analyse the simulation in the same way, using realistic weak lensing, X-ray, and tSZ synthetic observations. Furthermore, to keep selection biases under control, we employ exactly the same galaxy selection and group identification procedures to the observations and simulation. Applying this comparison, we find that the simulations reproduce the richness, size, and stellar mass functions of GAMA groups, as well as the stacked weak lensing and tSZ signals in bins of group stellar mass. However, the simulations predict X-ray luminosities that are higher than observed for this optically selected group sample. As the same simulations were previously shown to match the luminosities of X-ray-selected groups, this suggests that X-ray-selected systems may form a biased subset. Finally, we demonstrate that our observational processing of the X-ray and tSZ signals is free of significant biases. We find that our optical group selection procedure has, however, some room for improvement

A giant radio halo in a low-mass SZ-selected galaxy cluster: ACT-CL J0256.5+0006

We present the detection of a giant radio halo (GRH) in the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ)-selected merging galaxy cluster ACT-CL J0256.5+0006 (z = 0.363), observed with the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope at 325 and 610 MHz. We find this cluster to host a faint (S610= 5.6 ± 1.4 mJy) radio halo with an angular extent of 2.6 arcmin, corresponding to 0.8 Mpc at the cluster redshift, qualifying it as a GRH. J0256 is one of the lowest mass systems, M500, SZ= (5.0 ± 1.2) × 1014M?, found to host a GRH. We measure the GRH at lower significance at 325 MHz (S325= 10.3 ± 5.3 mJy), obtaining a spectral index measurement of a325610= 1.0-0.9+0.7. This result is consistent with the mean spectral index of the population of typical radio haloes, a = 1.2 ± 0.2. Adopting the latter value, we determine a 1.4 GHz radio power of P1.4 GHz= (1.0 ± 0.3) × 1024W Hz-1, placing this cluster within the scatter of known scaling relations. Various lines of evidence, including the intracluster medium morphology, suggest that ACT-CL J0256.5+0006 is composed of two subclusters. We determine a merger mass ratio of 7:4, and a line-of-sight velocity difference of v? = 1880 ± 210 km s-1. We construct a simple merger model to infer relevant time-scales in the merger. From its location on the P1.4 GHz-LXscaling relation, we infer that we observe ACT-CL J0256.5+0006 just before first core crossing