Measuring galaxy cluster mass profiles into the low-acceleration regime with galaxy kinematics

¹ Leibniz-Institute for Astrophysics, An der Sternwarte 16, 14482 Potsdam, Germany
e-mail: pli@aip.de
² Institute of Astronomy, National Central University, Taoyuan 32001, Taiwan
³ Institut für Physik und Astronomie, Universität Potsdam, Karl-Liebknecht-Straße 24/25, 14476 Potsdam, Germany
⁴ INAF – Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory, Largo Enrico Fermi 5, 50125 Firenze, Italy
⁵ Department of Astronomy, Case Western Reserve University, 10900 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA
⁶ Department of Physics, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403, USA
⁷ Department of Physics, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH, UK
⁸ College of General Studies, Yuan-Ze University, Taoyuan 32003, Taiwan

Received: 16 March 2023
Accepted: 12 June 2023

Abstract

We probed the dynamical mass profiles of ten galaxy clusters from the HIghest X-ray FLUx Galaxy Cluster Sample (HIFLUGCS) using galaxy kinematics. We numerically solved the spherical Jeans equation and parameterize the dynamical mass profile and the galaxy velocity anisotropy profile using two general functions to ensure that our results are not biased toward any specific model. The mass-velocity anisotropy degeneracy is ameliorated by using two “virial shape parameters” that depend on the fourth moment of velocity distribution. The resulting velocity anisotropy estimates consistently show a nearly isotropic distribution in the inner regions, with an increasing radial anisotropy toward large radii. We compared our derived dynamical masses with those calculated from X-ray gas data assuming hydrostatic equilibrium, finding that massive and rich relaxed clusters generally present consistent mass measurements, while unrelaxed or low-richness clusters have systematically larger total masses than hydrostatic masses by, on average, 50%. This might help alleviate current tensions in the measurement of σ₈, but it also leads to cluster baryon fractions below the cosmic value. Finally, our approach probes accelerations as low as 10⁻¹¹ m s⁻², comparable to the outskirts of individual late-type galaxies. We confirm that galaxy clusters deviate from the radial acceleration relation defined by galaxies.