New Cosmology with Clusters of Galaxies

The review summarizes present and future applications of galaxy clusters to cosmology with emphasis on nearby X-ray clusters. The discussion includes the density of dark matter, the normalization of the matter power spectrum, neutrino masses, and especially the equation of state of the dark energy, the interaction between dark energy and ordinary matter, gravitational holography, and the effects of extra-dimensions.Comment: 32 pages, 10 figures, invited review at the joint conference of the Czech Astron. Society and the Astron. Gesell. To appear in Reviews in Modern Astronomy 18 on "From Cosmolgical Structures to the Milky Way", ed. S. Roese

Detection of X-ray Clusters of Galaxies by Matching RASS Photons and SDSS Galaxies within GAVO

A new method for a simultaneous search for clusters of galaxies in X-ray photon maps and optical galaxy maps is described. The merging of X-ray and optical data improves the source identification so that a large amount of telescope time for spectroscopic follow-up can be saved. The method appears thus ideally suited for the analysis of the recently proposed wide-angle X-ray missions like DUO and ROSITA. As a first application, clusters are extracted from the 3rd version of the ROSAT All-Sky Survey and the Early Date Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). The time-consuming computations are performed within the German Astrophysical Virtual Observatory (GAVO). On a test area of 140 square degrees, 75 X-ray clusters are detected down to an X-ray flux limit of $3-5\times 10^{-13} {\rm erg} {\rm s}^{-1} {\rm cm}^{-2}$ in the ROSAT energy band 0.1-2.4 keV. The clusters have redshifts $z\le 0.5$. The survey thus fills the gap between traditional large-area X-ray surveys and serendipitous X-ray cluster searches based on pointed observations, and has the potential to yield about 4,000 X-ray clusters after completion of SDSS.Comment: 19 pages, low-resolution figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic

The X-ray Luminosity - Velocity Dispersion relation in the REFLEX Cluster Survey

We present an estimate of the bolometric X-ray luminosity - velocity dispersion L_x - sigma_v relation measured from a new, large and homogeneous sample of 171 low redshift, X-ray selected galaxy clusters. The linear fitting of log(L_x) - log(sigma_v) gives L_x = 10^{32.72 \pm 0.08} sigma^{4.1 \pm 0.3}_v erg s^{-1} h^{-2}_{50}. Furthermore, a study of 54 clusters, for which the X-ray temperature of the intracluster medium T is available, allows us to explore two other scaling relations, L_x -T and sigma_v -T. From this sample we obtain L_x \propto T^{3.1 \pm 0.2} and sigma_v \propto T^{1.00 \pm 0.16}, which are fully consistent with the above result for the L_x-sigma_v. The slopes of L_x -T and sigma_v -T are incompatible with the values predicted by self-similarity (L_x \propto T^{2} \propto \sigma_v^4), thus suggesting the presence of non-gravitational energy sources heating up the intracluster medium, in addition to the gravitational collapse, in the early stages of cluster formation. On the other hand, the result on log(L_x) - log(sigma_v) supports the self-similar model.Comment: 9 pages, accepted for publication in MNRA

Probing Turbulence in the Coma Galaxy Cluster

Spatially-resolved gas pressure maps of the Coma galaxy cluster are obtained from a mosaic of XMM-Newton observations in the scale range between a resolution of 20 kpc and an extent of 2.8 Mpc. A Fourier analysis of the data reveals the presence of a scale-invariant pressure fluctuation spectrum in the range between 40 and 90 kpc and is found to be well described by a projected Kolmogorov/Oboukhov-type turbulence spectrum. Deprojection and integration of the spectrum yields the lower limit of $\sim 10$ percent of the total intracluster medium pressure in turbulent form. The results also provide observational constraints on the viscosity of the gas.Comment: 12 pages, 13 figures (low resolution), version accepted by Astron. Astrophy

Diffuse radio emission in a REFLEX cluster

Deep Very Large Array radio observations are presented for the REFLEX clusters RXCJ0437.1+0043 and RXCJ1314.4-2515. They are at similar distance and show similar X-ray luminosity, but they are quite different in X-ray structure. Indeed RXCJ0437.1+0043 is regular and relaxed, whereas RXCJ1314.4-2515 is characterized by substructure and possible merging processes. The radio images reveal no diffuse emission in RXCJ0437.1+0043, and a complex diffuse structure in RXCJ1314.4-2515. The diffuse source in the latter cluster consists of a central radio halo which extends to the West toward the cluster periphery and bends to the North to form a possible relic. Another extended source is detected in the eastern cluster peripheral region. Although there could be plausible optical identifications for this source, it might also be a relic candidate owing to its very steep spectrum. The present results confirm the tight link between diffuse cluster radio sources and cluster merger processes.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A. Figures here have been degraded to reduce their size. A version with full resolution figures is available at http://www.ira.cnr.it/~lferetti/OUTGOING/papREFLEX.ps.g

Non-Markov Excursion Set Model of Dark Matter Halo Abundances

The excursion set model provides a convenient theoretical framework to derive dark matter halo abundances. This paper generalizes the model by introducing a more realistic merging and collapse process. A new parameter regulates the influence of the environment and thus the coherence (non-Markovianity) of the merging and the collapse of individual mass shells. The model mass function also includes the effects of an ellipsoidal collapse. Analytic approximations of the halo mass function are derived for scale-invariant power spectra with the slopes $n=0,-1,-2$. The $n=-2$ mass function can be compared with the results obtained from the `Hubble volume' simulations. A significant detection of non-Markovian effects is found for an assumed accuracy of the simulated mass function of 10%.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic

Fundamental activity constraints lead to specific interpretations of the connectome

The continuous integration of experimental data into coherent models of the brain is an increasing challenge of modern neuroscience. Such models provide a bridge between structure and activity, and identify the mechanisms giving rise to experimental observations. Nevertheless, structurally realistic network models of spiking neurons are necessarily underconstrained even if experimental data on brain connectivity are incorporated to the best of our knowledge. Guided by physiological observations, any model must therefore explore the parameter ranges within the uncertainty of the data. Based on simulation results alone, however, the mechanisms underlying stable and physiologically realistic activity often remain obscure. We here employ a mean-field reduction of the dynamics, which allows us to include activity constraints into the process of model construction. We shape the phase space of a multi-scale network model of the vision-related areas of macaque cortex by systematically refining its connectivity. Fundamental constraints on the activity, i.e., prohibiting quiescence and requiring global stability, prove sufficient to obtain realistic layer- and area-specific activity. Only small adaptations of the structure are required, showing that the network operates close to an instability. The procedure identifies components of the network critical to its collective dynamics and creates hypotheses for structural data and future experiments. The method can be applied to networks involving any neuron model with a known gain function.Comment: J. Schuecker and M. Schmidt contributed equally to this wor