MILANO – PhD – Galaxy clusters – Thermodynamical properties of weak-lensing selected clusters

The baryons in the intracluster Medium (ICM) offer us the unique opportunity of determining the dynamical status of clusters, their formation and evolution, through thermodynamic radial profiles (electron density, temperature, pressure, and entropy).
However, our current knowledge of them comes primarily from detailed studies of systems selected by their minority component (hot baryons and stars), used to identify them (through X-ray, SZ, or optical/IR surveys), which is now generally recognized to yield a biased view of the cluster population.
Ideally, selection by total mass (i.e. weak-lensing) should provide a bias-free sample, and is preferable to a selection that relies on indirect signals.
The thesis uses X-ray and SZ data acquired by our group to measure thermodynamic profiles of weak-lensing selected clusters and, from them, the whole spread of the population properties and the bias present in samples studied so far.

[Credit image: Wikipedia]