JKCS 041: a colour-detected galaxy cluster at zphot ~ 1.9 with deep potential well as confirmed by X-ray data

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Free access article

Issue		A&A Volume 507, Number 1, November III 2009


Page(s)		147 - 157
Section		Cosmology (including clusters of galaxies)
DOI		http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/200912299
Published online		01 October 2009

A&A 507, 147-157 (2009)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/200912299

JKCS 041: a colour-detected galaxy cluster at z_phot ~ 1.9 with deep potential well as confirmed by X-ray data

S. Andreon¹, B. Maughan², G. Trinchieri¹, and J. Kurk³

¹ INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera, via Brera 28, 20121 Milano, Italy
e-mail: stefano.andreon@brera.inaf.it
² Department of Physics, University of Bristol, Tyndall Ave, Bristol BS8 1TL, UK
³ Max-Planck-Institut fur Astronomie, Konigstuhl 17, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany

Received 8 April 2009 / Accepted 24 September 2009

Abstract
We report the discovery of JKCS 041, a massive near-infrared selected cluster of galaxies at z_phot~1.9. The cluster was originally discovered using a modified red-sequence method and also detected in follow-up Chandra data as an extended X-ray source. Optical and near-infrared imaging data alone allow us to show that the detection of JKCS 041 is secure, even in the absence of the X-ray data. We investigate the possibility that JKCS 041 is not a galaxy cluster at z ~ 1.9, and find other explanations unlikely. The X-ray detection and statistical arguments rule out the hypothesis that JKCS 041 is actually a blend of groups along the line of sight, and we find that the X-ray emitting gas is too hot and dense to be a filament projected along the line of sight. The absence of a central radio source and the extent and morphology of the X-ray emission argue against the possibility that the X-ray emission comes from inverse Compton scattering of CMB photons by a radio plasma. The cluster has an X-ray core radius of $36.6^{\rm +8.3}_{-7.6}$ arcsec (about 300 kpc), an X-ray temperature of $7.4^{\rm +5.3}_{-3.3}$ keV, a bolometric X-ray luminosity within R₅₀₀ of (7.6 $\pm$ 0.5) $\times$ 10⁴⁴ erg s^-1, and an estimated mass of M₅₀₀ = $2.9^{\rm +3.8}_{-2.4}$ $\times$ 10¹⁴ $M_\odot$ , the last derived under the usual (and strong) assumptions. The cluster is composed of 16.4 $\pm$ 6.3 galaxies within 1.5 arcmin (750 kpc) brighter than K ~ 20.7 mag. The high redshift of JKCS 041 is determined from the detection colour, from the detection of the cluster in a galaxy sample formed by z_phot > 1.6 galaxies and from a photometric redshift based on 11-band spectral energy distribution fitting. By means of the latter we find the cluster redshift to be 1.84 < z < 2.12 at 68% confidence. Therefore, JKCS 041 is a cluster of galaxies at z_phot ~ 1.9 with a deep potential well, making it the most distant cluster with extended X-ray emission known.

Key words: galaxies: evolution -- galaxies: clusters: general -- galaxies: clusters: individual: JKCS 041 -- cosmology: dark matter -- X-rays: galaxies: clusters -- methods: statistical

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