We present angular diameter distance measurements obtained by locating the baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) scale in the distribution of galaxies selected from the first year of Dark Energy... Show moreWe present angular diameter distance measurements obtained by locating the baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) scale in the distribution of galaxies selected from the first year of Dark Energy Survey data. We consider a sample of over 1.3 million galaxies distributed over a footprint of 1336 deg2 with 0.6 < zzphoto < 1 and a typical redshift uncertainty of 0.03(1 + zz). This sample was selected, as fully described in a companion paper, using a colour/magnitude selection that optimizes trade-offs between number density and redshift uncertainty. We investigate the BAO signal in the projected clustering using three conventions, the angular separation, the comoving transverse separation, and spherical harmonics. Further, we compare results obtained from template-based and machine-learning photometric redshift determinations. We use 1800 simulations that approximate our sample in order to produce covariance matrices and allow us to validate our distance scale measurement methodology. We measure the angular diameter distance, DA, at the effective redshift of our sample divided by the true physical scale of the BAO feature, rd. We obtain close to a 4 per cent distance measurement of DA(zzeff = 0.81)/rd = 10.75 ± 0.43. These results are consistent with the flat Λ cold dark matter concordance cosmological model supported by numerous other recent experimental results. Show less
We present a Subaru weak lensing measurement of ACT-CL J0022.2-0036, one of the most luminous, high-redshift (z = 0.81) Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) clusters discovered in the 268 deg$^{2}$ equatorial... Show moreWe present a Subaru weak lensing measurement of ACT-CL J0022.2-0036, one of the most luminous, high-redshift (z = 0.81) Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) clusters discovered in the 268 deg$^{2}$ equatorial region survey of the Atacama Cosmology Telescope that overlaps with Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Stripe 82 field. Ours is the first weak lensing study with Subaru at such high redshifts. For the weak lensing analysis using i$^{'}$-band images, we use a model-fitting (Gauss-Laguerre shapelet) method to measure shapes of galaxy images, where we fit galaxy images in different exposures simultaneously to obtain best-fitting ellipticities taking into account the different point spread functions (PSFs) in each exposure. We also take into account the astrometric distortion effect on galaxy images by performing the model fitting in the world coordinate system. To select background galaxies behind the cluster at z = 0.81, we use photometric redshift estimates for every galaxy derived from the co-added images of multi-passband Br$^{'}$i$^{'}$z$^{'}$Y, with PSF matching/homogenization. After a photometric redshift cut for background galaxy selection, we detect the tangential weak lensing distortion signal with a total signal-to-noise ratio of about 3.7. By fitting a Navarro-Frenk-White model to the measured shear profile, we find the cluster mass to be M\_$\{$200bar$\{${$ρ$} $\}$\_m$\}$ = [7.5\^{}$\{$+3.2$\}$\_$\{$-2.8$\}$(stat.)\^{}$\{$+1.3$\}$\_$\{$-0.6$\}$(sys.)]{\times} 10\^{}$\{$14$\}$ M\_$\{$odot $\}$ h\^{}$\{$-1$\}$. The weak lensing-derived mass is consistent with previous mass estimates based on the SZ observation, with assumptions of hydrostatic equilibrium and virial theorem, as well as with scaling relations between SZ signal and mass derived from weak lensing, X-ray and velocity dispersion, within the measurement errors. We also show that the existence of ACT-CL J0022.2-0036 at z = 0.81 is consistent with the cluster abundance prediction of the {$\Lambda$}-dominated cold dark matter structure formation model. We thus demonstrate the capability of Subaru-type ground-based images for studying weak lensing of high-redshift clusters. Show less
We present the optical and X-ray properties of 68 galaxy clusters selected via the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect at 148 GHz by the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT). Our sample, from an area of... Show moreWe present the optical and X-ray properties of 68 galaxy clusters selected via the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect at 148 GHz by the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT). Our sample, from an area of 504 deg$^{2}$ centered on the celestial equator, is divided into two regions. The main region uses 270 deg$^{2}$ of the ACT survey that overlaps with the co-added ugriz imaging from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) over Stripe 82 plus additional near-infrared pointed observations with the Apache Point Observatory 3.5 m telescope. We confirm a total of 49 clusters to z {ap} 1.3, of which 22 (all at z {gt} 0.55) are new discoveries. For the second region, the regular-depth SDSS imaging allows us to confirm 19 more clusters up to z {ap} 0.7, of which 10 systems are new. We present the optical richness, photometric redshifts, and separation between the SZ position and the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG). We find no significant offset between the cluster SZ centroid and BCG location and a weak correlation between optical richness and SZ-derived mass. We also present X-ray fluxes and luminosities from the ROSAT All Sky Survey which confirm that this is a massive sample. One of the newly discovered clusters, ACT-CL J0044.4+0113 at z = 1.1 (photometric), has an integrated XMM-Newton X-ray temperature of kT$_X$ = 7.9 {plusmn} 1.0 keV and combined mass of M $_{200a }$ = 8.2$^{+3.3}$ $_{-2.5}$ { imes} 10$^{14}$ h $^{-1}$ $_{70}$ M $_{⊙}$, placing it among the most massive and X-ray-hot clusters known at redshifts beyond z = 1. We also highlight the optically rich cluster ACT-CL J2327.4-0204 (RCS2 2327) at z = 0.705 (spectroscopic) as the most significant detection of the whole equatorial sample with a Chandra-derived mass of M $_{200a }$ = 1.9$^{+0.6}$ $_{-0.4}$ { imes} 10$^{15}$ h $^{-1}$ $_{70}$ M $_{⊙}$, placing it in the ranks of the most massive known clusters like El Gordo and the Bullet Cluster. Show less
Sifon Andalaft, C.J.; Menanteau, F.; Hasselfield, M.; Marriage, T.; Hughes, J.; Barrientos, L.; ... ; Wollack, E. 2013
We present the first dynamical mass estimates and scaling relations for a sample of Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect (SZE) selected galaxy clusters. The sample consists of 16 massive clusters detected... Show moreWe present the first dynamical mass estimates and scaling relations for a sample of Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect (SZE) selected galaxy clusters. The sample consists of 16 massive clusters detected with the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) over a 455 deg2 area of the southern sky. Deep multi-object spectroscopic observations were taken to secure intermediate-resolution (R ~ 700-800) spectra and redshifts for ≈60 member galaxies on average per cluster. The dynamical masses M 200c of the clusters have been calculated using simulation-based scaling relations between velocity dispersion and mass. The sample has a median redshift z = 0.50 and a median mass with a lower limit , consistent with the expectations for the ACT southern sky survey. These masses are compared to the ACT SZE properties of the sample, specifically, the match-filtered central SZE amplitude , the central Compton parameter y 0, and the integrated Compton signal Y 200c , which we use to derive SZE-mass scaling relations. All SZE estimators correlate with dynamical mass with low intrinsic scatter ( 20%), in agreement with numerical simulations. We explore the effects of various systematic effects on these scaling relations, including the correlation between observables and the influence of dynamically disturbed clusters. Using the three-dimensional information available, we divide the sample into relaxed and disturbed clusters and find that ~50% of the clusters are disturbed. There are hints that disturbed systems might bias the scaling relations, but given the current sample sizes, these differences are not significant; further studies including more clusters are required to assess the impact of these clusters on the scaling relations. Show less
We present the measured Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) flux from 474 optically selected MaxBCG clusters that fall within the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) Equatorial survey region. The ACT Equatorial... Show moreWe present the measured Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) flux from 474 optically selected MaxBCG clusters that fall within the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) Equatorial survey region. The ACT Equatorial region used in this analysis covers 510 deg2and overlaps Stripe 82 of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We also present the measured SZ flux stacked on 52 X-ray-selected MCXC clusters that fall within the ACT Equatorial region and an ACT Southern survey region covering 455 deg2. We find that the measured SZ flux from the X-ray-selected clusters is consistent with expectations. However, we find that the measured SZ flux from the optically selected clusters is both significantly lower than expectations and lower than the recovered SZ flux measured by the Planck satellite. Since we find a lower recovered SZ signal than Planck, we investigate the possibility that there is a significant offset between the optically selected brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) and the SZ centers, to which ACT is more sensitive due to its finer resolution. Such offsets can arise due to either an intrinsic physical separation between the BCG and the center of the gas concentration or from misidentification of the cluster BCG. We find that the entire discrepancy for both ACT and Planck can be explained by assuming that the BCGs are offset from the SZ maxima with a uniform random distribution between 0 and 1.5 Mpc. Such large offsets between gas peaks and BCGs for optically selected cluster samples seem unlikely given that we find the physical separation between BCGs and X-ray peaks for an X-ray-selected subsample of MaxBCG clusters to have a much narrower distribution that peaks within 0.2 Mpc. It is possible that other effects are lowering the ACT and Planck signals by the same amount, with offsets between BCGs and SZ peaks explaining the remaining difference between ACT and Planck measurements. Several effects that can lower the SZ signal equally for both ACT and Planck, but not explain the difference in measured signals, include a larger percentage of false detections in the MaxBCG sample, a lower normalization of the mass-richness relation, radio or infrared galaxy contamination of the SZ flux, and a low intrinsic SZ signal. In the latter two cases, the effects would need to be preferentially more significant in the optically selected MaxBCG sample than in the MCXC X-ray sample. Show less
