Abstract
We present a comparison of optical and X-ray properties of galaxy clusters in the northern sky, using literature data from BAX and optically selected clusters in DPOSS. We determine the recovery rate of X-ray-detected clusters in the optical as a function of richness, redshift, and X-ray luminosity, showing that the missed clusters are typically low-contrast systems when observed optically (either poor or at high redshifts). We employ four different statistical tests to test for the presence of substructure using optical two-dimensional data. We find that approximately 35% of the clusters show strong signs of substructure in the optical. However, the results are test-dependent, with variations also due to the magnitude range and radius utilized. We have also performed a comparison of X-ray luminosity and temperature with optical galaxy counts (richness). We find that the slope and scatter of the relations between richness and the X-ray properties are heavily dependent on the density contrast of the clusters. The selection of substructure-free systems does not improve the correlation between X-ray luminosity and richness, but this comparison also shows much larger scatter than one obtained using the X-ray temperature. In the latter case, the sample is significantly reduced because temperature measurements are available only for the most massive (and thus high-contrast) systems. However, the comparison between temperature and richness is very sensitive to the exclusion of clusters showing signs of substructure. The correlation of X-ray luminosity and richness is based on the largest sample to date (~750 clusters), while tests involving temperature use a similar number of objects as previous works (≲100). The results presented here are in good agreement with existing literature.
Export citation and abstract BibTeX RIS