Friday, October 21, 2011

1110.4391 (William A. Dawson et al.)

Discovery of a Dissociative Galaxy Cluster Merger with Large Physical Separation    [PDF]

William A. Dawson, David Wittman, Myungkook Jee, Perry Gee, John P. Hughes, J. Anthony Tyson, Samuel Schmidt, Paul Thorman, Marusa Bradac, Satoshi Miyazaki, Brian Lemaux, Yousuke Utsumi
We present DLSCL J0916.2+2951 (z=0.53), a newly discovered major cluster merger in which the collisional cluster gas has become separated from the collisionless galaxies and dark matter. We identified the cluster using optical and weak lensing observations as part of the Deep Lens Survey. Our follow-up observations with Keck, Subaru, Hubble Space Telescope, and Chandra enable us to show that the cluster is a dissociative merger and constrain the dark matter self-interaction cross-section {\sigma}_{DM}m_{DM}^{-1}\leq7 cm^2g^{-1}. The system is observed at least 0.7\pm0.2 Gyr since first pass-through, thus providing a picture of cluster mergers 2-5 times further progressed than similar systems observed to date. This improved temporal leverage has implications for our understanding of merging clusters and their impact on galaxy evolution.
View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1110.4391

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