The ongoing X-ray missions XMM-Newton and Chandra have good enough angular resolution to
measure the temperature and mass profiles in radial bins for clusters at reasonable
redshifts, although this requires long exposures. Many planned X-ray missions aim to improve the
spectral coverage, spectral resolution, and/or collection area of the present mission, but they are
nonetheless mostly suited for targeted observations of individual objects. Two notable exceptions are
eROSITA12 [207, launch 2014] and
the Wide Field X-ray Telescope13
[WFXT 390, 931, 789, 773, 152, 790, proposed] which will both conduct full sky surveys and, in the case of
WFXT, also smaller but deeper surveys of large fractions of the sky.
A sample of high-angular resolution X-ray cluster observations can be used to test the prediction from
-body simulations of structure formation that dark matter haloes are described by the NFW profile
[684] with a concentration parameter
. This describes the steepness of the profile, which is related to the
mass of the halo [685]. Weak or strong lensing measurements of the mass profile, such as those
that will be provided from Euclid, can supplement the X-ray measurement and have different
systematics. Euclid could provide wide field weak lensing data for such a purpose with very good
point spread function (PSF) properties, but it is likely that the depth of the Euclid survey
will make dedicated deep field observations a better choice for a lensing counterpart to the
X-ray observations. However, if the WFXT mission becomes a reality, the sheer number of
detected clusters with mass profiles would mean Euclid could play a much more important
rôle.
X-ray observations of galaxy clusters can constrain cosmology by measuring the geometry of the
universe through the baryon fraction [26] or by measuring the growth of structures by determining
the high-mass tail of the mass function [622]. The latter method would make the most of the
large number of clusters detected in full-sky surveys and there would be several benefits by
combining an X-ray and a lensing survey. It is not immediately clear which type of survey would be
able to better detect clusters at various redshifts and masses, and the combination of the two
probes could improve understanding of the sample completeness. An X-ray survey alone cannot
measure cluster masses with the required precision for cosmology. Instead, it requires a calibrated
relation between the X-ray temperature and the cluster mass. Such a calibration, derived from a
large sample of clusters, could be provided by Euclid. In any case, it is not clear yet whether
the large size of a Euclid sample would be more beneficial than deeper observations of fewer
clusters.
Finally, X-ray observations can also confirm the nature of possible ‘bullet-like’ merging clusters. In such systems the shock of the collision has displaced the ICM from the dark matter mass, which is identified through gravitational lensing. This offers the opportunity to study dark matter haloes with very few baryons and, e.g., search for signatures of decaying or annihilating dark matter.
http://www.livingreviews.org/lrr-2013-6 |
Living Rev. Relativity 16, (2013), 6
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