Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) : estimating galaxy group masses via caustic analysis

Alpaslan, M.; Robotham, A.S.G.; Driver, S.; Norberg, P.; Peacock, J.A.; Baldry, I.; Bland-Hawthorn, J.; Brough, S.; Hopkins, A.M.; Kelvin, L.S.; Liske, J.; Loveday, J.; Merson, A.; Nichol, R.C.; Pimbblet, K.

doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2012.21020.x

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) : estimating galaxy group masses via caustic analysis

Alpaslan, M.; Robotham, A.S.G.; Driver, S.; Norberg, P.; Peacock, J.A.; Baldry, I.; Bland-Hawthorn, J.; Brough, S.; Hopkins, A.M.; Kelvin, L.S.; Liske, J.; Loveday, J.; Merson, A.; Nichol, R.C.; Pimbblet, K.

Authors

M. Alpaslan

A.S.G. Robotham

S. Driver

Professor Peder Norberg peder.norberg@durham.ac.uk
Professor

J.A. Peacock

I. Baldry

J. Bland-Hawthorn

S. Brough

A.M. Hopkins

L.S. Kelvin

J. Liske

J. Loveday

A. Merson

R.C. Nichol

K. Pimbblet

Abstract

We have generated complementary halo mass estimates for all the groups in the Galaxy And Mass Assembly Galaxy Group Catalogue (GAMA G3Cv1) using a modified caustic mass estimation algorithm, originally developed by Diaferio & Geller. We calibrate the algorithm by applying it on a series of nine GAMA mock galaxy light cones and investigate the effects of using different definitions for group centre and size. We select the set of parameters that provide median-unbiased mass estimates when tested on mocks, and generate mass estimates for the real group catalogue. We find that on average, the caustic mass estimates agree with dynamical mass estimates within a factor of 2 in 90.8 ± 6.1 per cent groups and compare equally well to velocity dispersion based mass estimates for both high- and low-multiplicity groups over the full range of masses probed by the G3Cv1.

Citation

Alpaslan, M., Robotham, A., Driver, S., Norberg, P., Peacock, J., Baldry, I., …Pimbblet, K. (2012). Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) : estimating galaxy group masses via caustic analysis. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 426(4), 2832-2846. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2012.21020.x

Journal Article Type	Article
Publication Date	Nov 1, 2012
Deposit Date	Jun 3, 2014
Publicly Available Date	Aug 22, 2014
Journal	Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Print ISSN	0035-8711
Electronic ISSN	1365-2966
Publisher	Royal Astronomical Society
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	426
Issue	4
Pages	2832-2846
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2012.21020.x
Keywords	Galaxies: groups: general, Galaxies: haloes, Dark matter, Large-scale structure of Universe.

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This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society © 2012 The Authors Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.