Growing a ‘cosmic beast’: observations and simulations of MACS J0717.5+3745

Jauzac, M.; Eckert, D.; Schaller, M.; Schwinn, J.; Massey, R.; Bahé, Y.; Baugh, C.; Barnes, D.; Dalla Vecchia, C.; Ebeling, H.; Harvey, D.; Jullo, E.; Kay, S.T.; Kneib, J.-P.; Limousin, M.; Medezinski, E.; Natarajan, P.; Nonino, M.; Robertson, A.; Tam, S.I.; Umetsu, K.

doi:10.1093/mnras/sty2366

Growing a ‘cosmic beast’: observations and simulations of MACS J0717.5+3745

Jauzac, M.; Eckert, D.; Schaller, M.; Schwinn, J.; Massey, R.; Bahé, Y.; Baugh, C.; Barnes, D.; Dalla Vecchia, C.; Ebeling, H.; Harvey, D.; Jullo, E.; Kay, S.T.; Kneib, J.-P.; Limousin, M.; Medezinski, E.; Natarajan, P.; Nonino, M.; Robertson, A.; Tam, S.I.; Umetsu, K.

Authors

Professor Mathilde Jauzac mathilde.jauzac@durham.ac.uk
Professor

D. Eckert

M. Schaller

J. Schwinn

Professor Richard Massey r.j.massey@durham.ac.uk
Professor

Y. Bahé

Professor Carlton Baugh c.m.baugh@durham.ac.uk
Professor

D. Barnes

C. Dalla Vecchia

H. Ebeling

D. Harvey

E. Jullo

S.T. Kay

J.-P. Kneib

M. Limousin

E. Medezinski

P. Natarajan

M. Nonino

A. Robertson

S.I. Tam

K. Umetsu

Abstract

We present a gravitational lensing and X-ray analysis of a massive galaxy cluster and its surroundings. The core of MACS J0717.5+3745 (M(R < 1 Mpc) ∼ 2 × 1015 M, z = 0.54) is already known to contain four merging components. We show that this is surrounded by at least seven additional substructures with masses ranging 3.8−6.5 × 1013 M, at projected radii 1.6–4.9 Mpc. We compare MACS J0717 to mock lensing and X-ray observations of similarly rich clusters in cosmological simulations. The low gas fraction of substructures predicted by simulations turns out to match our observed values of 1–4 per cent. Comparing our data to three similar simulated haloes, we infer a typical growth rate and substructure infall velocity. That suggests MACS J0717 could evolve into a system similar to, but more massive than, Abell 2744 by z = 0.31, and into a ∼ 1016 M supercluster by z = 0. The radial distribution of infalling substructure suggests that merger events are strongly episodic; however, we find that the smooth accretion of surrounding material remains the main source of mass growth even for such massive clusters.

Citation

Jauzac, M., Eckert, D., Schaller, M., Schwinn, J., Massey, R., Bahé, Y., …Umetsu, K. (2018). Growing a ‘cosmic beast’: observations and simulations of MACS J0717.5+3745. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 481(3), 2901-2917. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/sty2366

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Aug 21, 2018
Online Publication Date	Aug 31, 2018
Publication Date	Dec 11, 2018
Deposit Date	Sep 24, 2018
Publicly Available Date	Sep 25, 2018
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	481
Issue	3
Pages	2901-2917
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/sty2366
Related Public URLs	https://arxiv.org/abs/1711.01324

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Copyright Statement
This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society ©: 2018 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.