Understanding shape and centroid deviations in 39 strong lensing galaxy clusters in various dynamical states

¹ Department of Physics, University of Cincinnati, USA
² Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan, USA
³ Centre for Extragalactic Astronomy, Durham University, USA
⁴ Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics/Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago, USA
⁵ Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics, University of Oslo, USA
⁶ Steward Observatory, USA
⁷ University of Arizona, Observational Cosmology Lab, Code 665, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, USA
⁸ Department of Physics/Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA

^* e-mail: gassisinr@mail.uc.edu

Published online: 28 March 2024

Abstract

Through observational tests of strong lensing galaxy clusters, we can test simulation derived structure predictions that follow from Λ Cold Dark Matter (ΛCDM) cosmology. The shape and centroid deviations between the total matter distribution, stellar matter distributions, and hot intracluster gas distribution serve as an observational test of these theoretical structure predictions. We measure the position angles, ellipticities, and locations/centroids of the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG), intracluster light (ICL). the hot intracluster medium (ICM), and the core lensing mass for a sample of strong lensing galaxy clusters from the SDSS Giant Arcs Survey (SGAS). We utilize HST WFC3/1R imaging data to measure the shapes/centroids of the ICL and BCG distributions and use Chandra ACIS-I X-ray data to measure the shapes/centroids of the ICM. Additionally, we measure the concentration parameter (c) and asymmetry parameter (A) to incorporate cluster dynamical state into our analysis. Using this multicomponent approach, we evaluate the different components in terms of their ability to trace out the DM halo of clusters in various dynamical states.