Revealing the Properties of Dark Matter in the Merging Cluster MACS J0025.4–1222

By Maruvsa Bradavc, S. Allen, T. Treu, H. Ebeling, Richard J. Massey, R. Morris, A. V. D. Linden, Douglas Applegate Ucsb, Kipac, Stanford and 2 more. 2008

269 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We constrain the physical nature of dark matter using the newly identified massive merging galaxy cluster MACS J0025.4–1222. As was previously shown by the example of the Bullet Cluster (1E 0657–56), such systems are ideal laboratories for detecting isolated dark matter and distinguishing between cold dark matter (CDM) and other scenarios (e.g., self-interacting dark matter, alternative gravity theories). MACS J0025.4–1222 consists of two merging subclusters of similar richness at z = 0.586. We measure the distribution of X-ray-emitting gas from Chandra X-ray data and find it to be clearly displaced from the distribution of galaxies. A strong (information from highly distorted arcs) and weak (using weakly distorted background galaxies) gravitational lensing analysis based on Hubble Space Telescope observations and Keck arc spectroscopy confirms that the subclusters have near-equal mass. The total mass distribution in each of the subclusters is clearly offset (at >4 σ significance) from the peak of the hot X-ray-emitting gas (the main baryonic component) but aligned with the distribution of galaxies. We measure the fractions of mass in hot gas (0.09+ 0.07−0.03) and stars (0.010+ 0.007−0.004), consistent with those of typical clusters, finding that dark matter is the dominant contributor to the gravitational field. Under the assumption that the subclusters experienced a head-on collision in the plane of the sky, we obtain an order-of-magnitude estimate of the dark matter self-interaction cross section of σ/m < 4 cm 2 g−1, reaffirming the results from the Bullet Cluster on the collisionless nature of dark matter.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/acabe8bbb5a8d62067d0780d6167fcba03573156

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Citations in the corpus

Photon and graviton mass limits (2008, background): “On the other hand, it was found (251) in the system MACSJ0025.”
The X-ray brightest clusters of galaxies from the Massive Cluster Survey (2010, background): “…(LaRoque et al. 2003; Ruderman & Ebeling 2005; Smail et al. 2007; Stott et al. 2007, 2009; Ebeling, Barrett & Donovan 2004; Kartaltepe et al. 2008; Ma et al. 2008, 2009; Bradač et al. 2008; van Weeren et al. 2009; Ebeling et al. 2009; Bonafede et al. 2009; Smith et al. 2009; Limousin et al. 2009).”
Gravitational lensing (2010, background): “Other such clusters have since been found [48].”
LENS MODELS AND MAGNIFICATION MAPS OF THE SIX HUBBLE FRONTIER FIELDS CLUSTERS (2014, unknown): “51222, Bradač et al. (2008); Abell 520, Clowe et al. (2012); Abell 3667, Joffre et al. (2000)).”
Cosmological Parameters from Observations of Galaxy Clusters (2011, background): “Detailed strong-plus-weak lensing analyses for a subset of these systems yields consistent constraints (Bradač et al. 2008b; Newman et al. 2009, 2011).”
X-ray–optical classification of cluster mergers and the evolution of the cluster merger fraction (2011, methodology): “We refer to the literature for a detailed discussion and results (Ebeling et al. 2007; Bradač et al. 2008; Ma et al. 2010).”
What does the Bullet Cluster tell us about Self-Interacting Dark Matter? (2016, unknown): “4−1222 (Bradač et al. 2008), σ/m < 3 cm2 g−1 from Abell 2744 (Merten et al. 2011), and σ/m < 7 cm2 g−1 from DLSCL J0916.”
The behaviour of dark matter associated with four bright cluster galaxies in the 10 kpc core of Abell 3827 (2015, background): “The different non-gravitational forces acting on dark matter and standard model particles have been highlighted most visibly in collisions like the ‘Bullet Cluster’ 1E0657-56 (Clowe, Gonzalez & Markevitch 2004; Bradač et al. 2006; Clowe et al. 2006), Abell 520 (Mahdavi et al. 2007; Clowe et al. 201”
THE ATACAMA COSMOLOGY TELESCOPE: ACT-CL J0102−4915 “EL GORDO,” A MASSIVE MERGING CLUSTER AT REDSHIFT 0.87 (2011, methodology): “These bullet systems have been used to offer direct evidence for the existence of dark matter (Clowe et al. 2004, 2006) and to set constraints on the self-interaction cross-section of the dark matter particle (Markevitch et al. 2004; Randall et al. 2008; Bradač et al. 2008).”
Dark Matter: A Primer (2010, result): “These results reaffirmed those of the Bullet Cluster and the need for collisionless dark matter (as well as severely constraining MOND theories (see the appendix for a brief description of MOND theories) [28].”
Creation of cosmic structure in the complex galaxy cluster merger Abell 2744 (2011, methodology): “Observations have also broadened, with discoveries of a possible line-of-sight merger CL0024+1654 (Czoske et al. 2002; Hoekstra 2007; Jee et al. 2007; Zitrin et al. 2009; Umetsu et al. 2010; Zu Hone et al. 2009,a), and other systems including the Baby Bullet (MACS J0025.”
Combined strong and weak lensing analysis of 28 clusters from the Sloan Giant Arcs Survey (2011, background): “…lensing analysis of several merging clusters of galaxies strongly supports the collisionless nature of dark matter (Clowe et al. 2006; Jee et al. 2007; Bradač et al. 2008; Merten et al. 2011), although a possible case against the collisionless nature has also been discovered (Mahdavi et al. 2007).”