Probing the evolution of the substructure frequency in galaxy clusters up to z ~ 1^⋆

Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik, Postfach 1312, Giessenbachstr., 85741 Garching, Germany
e-mail: weissman@mpe.mpg.de

Received: 18 March 2013
Accepted: 4 June 2013

Abstract

Context. Galaxy clusters are the last and largest objects to form in the standard hierarchical structure formation scenario through merging of smaller systems. The substructure frequency in the past and present epoch provides excellent means for studying the underlying cosmological model.

Aims. Using X-ray observations, we study the substructure frequency as a function of redshift by quantifying and comparing the fraction of dynamically young clusters at different redshifts up to z = 1.08. We are especially interested in possible biases due to the inconsistent data quality of the low-z and high-z samples.

Methods. Two well-studied morphology estimators, power ratio P3/P0 and center shift w, were used to quantify the dynamical state of 129 galaxy clusters, taking into account the different observational depth and noise levels of the observations.

Results. Owing to the sensitivity of P3/P0 to Poisson noise, it is essential to use datasets with similar photon statistics when studying the P3/P0-z relation. We degraded the high-quality data of the low-redshift sample to the low data quality of the high-z observations and found a shallow positive slope that is, however, not significant, indicating a slightly larger fraction of dynamically young objects at higher redshift. The w-z relation shows no significant dependence on the data quality and gives a similar result.

Conclusions. We find a similar trend for P3/P0 and w, namely a very mild increase of the disturbed cluster fraction with increasing redshifts. Within the significance limits, our findings are also consistent with no evolution.