The X-ray brightest clusters of galaxies from the Massive Cluster Survey

Ebeling, H.; Edge, A.C.; Mantz, A.; Barrett, E.; Henry, J.P.; Ma, C.J.; van Speybroeck, L.

Abstract

We present a statistically complete sample of very X-ray luminous galaxy clusters detected in the MAssive Cluster Survey (MACS). This second MACS release comprises all 34 MACS clusters with nominal X-ray fluxes in excess of 2 × 10−12 erg s−1 cm−2 (0.1–2.4 keV) in the ROSAT Bright Source Catalogue; two-thirds of them are new discoveries. Extending over the redshift range from 0.3 to 0.5, this subset complements the complete sample of the 12 most distant MACS clusters (z > 0.5) published in 2007 and further exemplifies the efficacy of X-ray selection for the compilation of samples of intrinsically massive galaxy clusters. Extensive follow-up observations with Chandra/ACIS led to three additional MACS cluster candidates being eliminated as (predominantly) X-ray point sources. For another four clusters – which, however, remain in our sample of 34 – the point-source contamination was found to be about 50 per cent. The median X-ray luminosity of 1.3 × 1045 erg s−1 (0.1–2.4 keV, Chandra, within r500) of the clusters in this subsample demonstrates the power of the MACS strategy to find the most extreme and rarest clusters out to significant redshift. A comparison of the optical and X-ray data for all clusters in this release finds a wide range of morphologies with no obvious bias in favour of either relaxed or merging systems.

Citation

Ebeling, H., Edge, A., Mantz, A., Barrett, E., Henry, J., Ma, C., & van Speybroeck, L. (2010). The X-ray brightest clusters of galaxies from the Massive Cluster Survey. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 407(1), 83-93. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2010.16920.x

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Sep 1, 2010
• Deposit Date: Jan 30, 2012
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 21, 2013
• 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: 407
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 83-93
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2010.16920.x
• Keywords: Catalogues, Surveys, Galaxies, Clusters, X-rays.