The Transparency of Galaxy Clusters

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dc.creatorBovy, Jo
dc.creatorHogg, David W.
dc.creatorMoustakas, John
dc.date2008-05-08
dc.date2008-07-25
dc.date.accessioned2026-07-07T10:16:58Z
dc.date.available2026-07-07T10:16:58Z
dc.descriptionIf galaxy clusters contain intracluster dust, the spectra of galaxies lying behind clusters should show attenuation by dust absorption. We compare the optical (3500 - 7200 Å) spectra of 60,267 luminous, early-type galaxies selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey to search for the signatures of intracluster dust in z ~ 0.05 clusters. We select massive, quiescent (i.e., non-star-forming) galaxies using an EW(Halpha) <= 2 Åcut and consider galaxies in three bins of velocity dispersion, ranging from 150 to 300 km s^{-1}. The uniformity of early-type galaxy spectra in the optical allows us to construct inverse-variance-weighted composite spectra with high signal-to-noise ratio (ranging from 10^2-10^3). We compare the composite spectra of galaxies that lie behind and adjacent to galaxy clusters and find no convincing evidence of dust attenuation on scales ~ 0.15-2 Mpc; we derive a generic limit of E(B-V) < 3 x 10^{-3} mag on scales ~ 1-2 Mpc at the 99% confidence level, using conservative jackknife error bars, corresponding to a dust mass <~ 10^8 $M_{\odot}$. On scales smaller than 1 Mpc this limit is slightly weaker, E(B-V) < 8 x 10^{-3} mag.
dc.description9 pages, 6 figures. ApJ in press
dc.identifierhttps://arxiv.org/abs/0805.1200
dc.identifierhttp://arxiv.org/abs/0805.1200
dc.identifierAstrophys.J. 688 (2008) 198-207
dc.identifierdoi:10.1086/592187
dc.identifier.urihttp://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/173695
dc.subjectAstrophysics
dc.titleThe Transparency of Galaxy Clusters
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