Paper detail

The evolution of mass profiles of galaxy clusters

We determine the average mass profile of galaxy clusters at two different redshifts and compare its evolution with cosmological model predictions. We use two samples of galaxy clusters spanning similar (evolutionary corrected) mass ranges at different redshifts. The sample of low-redshift (z ~ 0.0-0.1) clusters is extracted from the ESO Nearby Abell Cluster Survey (ENACS) catalog. The sample of high-redshift (z ~ 0.4-0.8) clusters is mostly made of clusters from the ESO Distant Cluster Survey (EDisCS). We determine the average mass-profiles for these two cluster samples by solving the Jeans equation for hydrostatic equilibrium, using galaxies as tracers. By using two cluster galaxy populations, characterized by the presence and, respectively, absence of emission-lines in their spectra ('ELGs' and 'nELGs' hereafter), we are able to partially break the mass-profile orbital-anisotropy degeneracy. We find that the mass-profiles of both the nearby and the distant clusters are reasonably well fitted by a Navarro, Frenk and White (NFW) model. The best-fit values of the NFW concentration parameter are as predicted by cosmological numerical simulations; cluster mass-density profiles become more concentrated with time. The evolution of the number-density profile of nELGs proceeds in the opposite sense, becoming less concentrated with time. In our analysis we also recover the orbital anisotropy of nELGs and ELGs . We find that in low-z clusters nELGs follow almost isotropic orbits and ELGs have more radially-elongated orbits. In high-z clusters both nELGs and ELGs follow radially-elongated orbits. We discuss these results in terms of the predicted secular mass growth of galaxy clusters and the transformation of ELGs into nELGs.