4:00–5:00 pm ERC 583
Title: Probing Structure Formation and Cosmology with Galaxy Clusters
Abstract: I'll present a range of recent results and ongoing research our group is pursuing based on galaxy clusters, which are the largest and most recent objects to form in our universe. I'll start with a summary of some of the main observational probes that can be utilized to study these objects, including the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect, X-rays, gravitational lensing, and optical spectroscopy. I'll then describe several projects, including: the discovery of a velocity-space decoupling of gas and dark matter in a major cluster merger; inverse-Compton scattering of CMB photons with cosmic rays as a potential significant contributor to the bright X-ray emission observed near the center of cool-core clusters; a measurement of the temperature of extremely hot shock-heated gas via relativistic corrections to the SZ effect; the impact of triaxiallity and orientation on SZ cluster detection; and multi-probe fits of triaxial models of the gas and dark matter distribution within the 118 CHEX-MATE clusters to better calibrate biases in masses derived from gravitational lensing for surveys like Euclid, to probe dark matter self interaction, and to assess radially-dependent deviations from hydrostatic equilibrium.
Host: Irina Zhuravleva