Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics – Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2010-09-11
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics
10 pages, 7 figures, 4 tables. Matching the version accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal
Scientific paper
We propose a simple estimator for the gravitational potential of cluster-size halos using the temperature and density profiles of the intracluster gas based on the assumptions of hydrostatic equilibrium and spherical symmetry. Using high resolution cosmological simulations of galaxy clusters, we show that the scaling relation between this estimator and the gravitational potential has a small intrinsic scatter of ~8%-15%, and it is insensitive to baryon physics outside the cluster core. The slope and the normalization of the scaling relation vary weakly with redshift, and they are relatively independent of the choice of radial range used and the dynamical states of the clusters. The results presented here provide a possible way for using the cluster potential function as an alternative to the cluster mass function in constraining cosmology using galaxy clusters.
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