Sarahi Palma
Pronouns: she/her
Research Mentor(s): August Evrard
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Physics / LSA
Program: UROPF
Session: Session 2 (10:00am – 10:50am)
Authors: August Evrard, Carly Mistick, Sarahi Palma
Abstract
Since the evolution and formation of galaxy clusters are dependent on the presence of dark matter and dark energy, which are reflected in the cosmological parameters, the masses of galaxy clusters can be used to constrain these parameters. The number of galaxies determined to contribute to the halo of a cluster, or richness, can be used to estimate masses. Velocity bias bv, which is dependent on redshift, halo size, and star mass threshold, is introduced through the characteristics of each cluster. It is the ratio of galaxy to dark matter velocity dispersions. More massive galaxies should have a little smaller velocity dispersion than less massive galaxies, according to recent evidence from four independent cosmological simulations. With the help of data from recent, sizable surveys, the current work aims to validate and improve these scaling associations. Corrections must be made for cosmological redshift, galactic extinction, and signal contaminants. The method of predicting cluster mass as a function of richness is expected to become less ambiguous due to recently discovered scaling relations. Results will be provided along with techniques for empirically finding these scaling relations.
