Exploring the contamination of the DES-Y1 cluster sample with SPT-SZ selected clusters

• Main Authors: Grandis, S, Mohr, JJ, Costanzi, M, Saro, A, Bocquet, S, Klein, M, Aguena, M, Allam, S, Annis, J, Ansarinejad, B, Bacon, D, Bertin, E, Bleem, L, Brooks, D, Burke, DL, Rosel, AC, Kind, MC, Carretero, J, Castander, FJ, Choi, A, da Costa, LN, De Vincente, J, Desai, S, Diehl, HT, Dietrich, JP, Doel, P, Eifler, TF, Everett, S, Ferrero, I, Floyd, B, Fosalba, P, Frieman, J, Garcia-Bellido, J, Gaztanaga, E, Gruen, D, Gruendl, RA, Gschwend, J, Gupta, N, Gutierrez, G, Hinton, SR, Hollowood, DL, Honscheid, K, James, DJ, Jeltema, T, Kuehn, K, Lahav, O, Lidman, C, Lima, M, Maia, MAG, March, M, Marshall, JL, Melchior, P, Menanteau, F, Miquel, R, Morgan, R, Myles, J, Ogando, R, Palmese, A, Paz-Chinchon, F, Plazas, AA, Reichardt, CL, Romer, AK, Sanchez, E, Scarpine, V, Serrano, S, Sevilla-Noarbe, I, Singh, P, Smith, M, Suchyta, E, Swanson, MEC, Tarle, G, Thomas, D, To, C, Weller, J, Wilkinson, RD, Wu, H
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: OXFORD UNIV PRESS 2021
• Subjects: South Pole; South pole
• Online Access: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10129944/1/stab869.pdf; https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10129944/

We perform a cross validation of the cluster catalogue selected by the red-sequence Matched-filter Probabilistic Percolation algorithm (redMaPPer) in Dark Energy Survey year 1 (DES-Y1) data by matching it with the Sunyaev–Zel’dovich effect (SZE) selected cluster catalogue from the South Pole Telescope SPT-SZ survey. Of the 1005 redMaPPer selected clusters with measured richness λ̂ >40 in the joint footprint, 207 are confirmed by SPT-SZ. Using the mass information from the SZE signal, we calibrate the richness–mass relation using a Bayesian cluster population model. We find a mass trend λ ∝ MB consistent with a linear relation (B ∼ 1), no significant redshift evolution and an intrinsic scatter in richness of σλ = 0.22 ± 0.06. By considering two error models, we explore the impact of projection effects on the richness–mass modelling, confirming that such effects are not detectable at the current level of systematic uncertainties. At low richness SPT-SZ confirms fewer redMaPPer clusters than expected. We interpret this richness dependent deficit in confirmed systems as due to the increased presence at low richness of low-mass objects not correctly accounted for by our richness-mass scatter model, which we call contaminants. At a richness λ̂ =40 , this population makes up >12 per cent (97.5 percentile) of the total population. Extrapolating this to a measured richness λ̂ =20 yields >22 per cent (97.5 percentile). With these contamination fractions, the predicted redMaPPer number counts in different plausible cosmologies are compatible with the measured abundance. The presence of such a population is also a plausible explanation for the different mass trends (B ∼ 0.75) obtained from mass calibration using purely optically selected clusters. The mean mass from stacked weak lensing (WL) measurements suggests that these low-mass contaminants are galaxy groups with masses ∼3–5 × 1013 M⊙ which are beyond the sensitivity of current SZE and X-ray surveys but a natural target for SPT-3G and eROSITA.