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The distribution of dark and luminous matter in the unique galaxy cluster merger Abell 2146

Published version
Peer-reviewed

Change log

Authors

King, LJ 
Clowe, DI 
Coleman, JE 
Russell, HR 
Santana, R 

Abstract

Abell 2146 (z = 0.232) consists of two galaxy clusters undergoing a major merger. The system was discovered in previous work, where two large shock fronts were detected using the Chandra X-ray Observatory, consistent with a merger close to the plane of the sky, caught soon after first core passage. A weak gravitational lensing analysis of the total gravitating mass in the system, using the distorted shapes of distant galaxies seen with Advanced Camera for Surveys - Wide Field Channel on Hubble Space Telescope, is presented. The highest peak in the reconstruction of the projected mass is centred on the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG) in Abell 2146-A. The mass associated with Abell 2146-B is more extended. Bootstrapped noise mass reconstructions show the mass peak in Abell 2146-A to be consistently centred on the BCG. Previous work showed that BCG-A appears to lag behind an X-ray cool core; although the peak of the mass reconstruction is centred on the BCG, it is also consistent with the X-ray peak given the resolution of the weak lensing mass map. The best-fitting mass model with two components centred on the BCGs yields M200 = 1.1−0.4+0.3 × 1015 and 3−2+1 × 1014 M for Abell 2146-A and Abell 2146-B, respectively, assuming a mass concentration parameter of c = 3.5 for each cluster. From the weak lensing analysis, Abell 2146-A is the primary halo component, and the origin of the apparent discrepancy with the X-ray analysis where Abell 2146-B is the primary halo is being assessed using simulations of the merger.

Description

Keywords

gravitational lensing: weak, galaxies: clusters: general, galaxies: clusters: individual: Abell 2146

Journal Title

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0035-8711
1365-2966

Volume Title

459

Publisher

Oxford University Press
Sponsorship
Science and Technology Facilities Council (ST/N000927/1)
Support for programme no. 12871 was provided by NASA through a grant from the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555, in part supporting LJK, DIC, JEC and JAW. LJK, JEC, JAW and BEL also acknowledge support from the University of Texas at Dallas. JEC thanks NASA and the Texas Space Grant Consortium for a Graduate Fellowship, and JAW thanks NASA and the Texas Space Grant Consortium for a Columbia Crew Memorial Undergraduate Scholarship. REAC acknowledges support from a scholarship from the Cambridge Philosophical Society and a Royal Astronomical Society grant. This research has made use of the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED) which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.