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American Astronomical Society, Astrophysical Journal, 1(568), p. 141-162, 2002

DOI: 10.1086/338763

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Probing The Distribution Of Dark Matter In The A901/902 Supercluster With Weak Lensing

Journal article published in 2001 by M. E. Gray, A. N. Taylor, K. Meisenheimer, S. Dye ORCID, C. Wolf, E. M. Thommes
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

We present a weak shear analysis of the Abell 901/902 supercluster, composed of three rich clusters at z=0.16. Using a deep R-band image from the 0.5 x 0.5 degree MPG/ESO Wide Field Imager together with supplementary B-band observations, we build up a comprehensive picture of the light and mass distributions in this region. We find that, on average, the light from the early-type galaxies traces the dark matter fairly well, although one cluster is a notable exception to this rule. The clusters themselves exhibit a range of mass-to-light (M/L) ratios, X-ray properties, and galaxy populations. We attempt to model the relation between the total mass and the light from the early-type galaxies with a simple scale-independent linear biasing model. We find M/L_B=130h for the early type galaxies with zero stochasticity, which, if taken at face value, would imply Omega_m < 0.1. However, this linear relation breaks down on small scales and on scales equivalent to the average cluster separation (approximately 1 Mpc), demonstrating that a single M/L ratio is not adequate to fully describe the mass-light relation in the supercluster. Rather, the scatter in M/L ratios observed for the clusters supports a model incorporating non-linear biasing or stochastic processes. Finally, there is a clear detection of filamentary structure connecting two of the clusters, seen in both the galaxy and dark matter distributions, and we discuss the effects of cluster-cluster and cluster-filament interactions as a means to reconcile the disparate descriptions of the supercluster. Comment: 23 pages, 19 figures. ApJ, accepted