VLSS J0318.9+5755 (the Treble Clef) is a radio phoenix with ultra-steep spectrum in a massive merging cluster at z≈0.117 in the Zone of Avoidance, shaped by ICM gas motions that may also power a candidate radio halo.
Shocks in the Stacked Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Profiles of Clusters II: Measurements from SPT-SZ + Planck Compton-y Map
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abstract
We search for the signature of cosmological shocks in stacked gas pressure profiles of galaxy clusters using data from the South Pole Telescope (SPT). Specifically, we stack the latest Compton-y maps from the 2500 deg^2 SPT-SZ survey on the locations of clusters identified in that same dataset. The sample contains 516 clusters with mean mass <M200m> = 1e14.9 msol and redshift <z> = 0.55. We analyze in parallel a set of zoom-in hydrodynamical simulations from The Three Hundred project. The SPT-SZ data show two features: (i) a pressure deficit at R/R200m = $1.08 \pm 0.09$, measured at $3.1\sigma$ significance and not observed in the simulations, and; (ii) a sharp decrease in pressure at R/R200m = $4.58 \pm 1.24$ at $2.0\sigma$ significance. The pressure deficit is qualitatively consistent with a shock-induced thermal non-equilibrium between electrons and ions, and the second feature is consistent with accretion shocks seen in previous studies. We split the cluster sample by redshift and mass, and find both features exist in all cases. There are also no significant differences in features along and across the cluster major axis, whose orientation roughly points towards filamentary structure. As a consistency test, we also analyze clusters from the Planck and Atacama Cosmology Telescope Polarimeter surveys and find quantitatively similar features in the pressure profiles. Finally, we compare the accretion shock radius (Rsh_acc) with existing measurements of the splashback radius (Rsp) for SPT-SZ and constrain the lower limit of the ratio, Rsh_acc/Rsp > $2.16 \pm 0.59$.
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The Treble Clef radio phoenix and its old nonthermal filaments
VLSS J0318.9+5755 (the Treble Clef) is a radio phoenix with ultra-steep spectrum in a massive merging cluster at z≈0.117 in the Zone of Avoidance, shaped by ICM gas motions that may also power a candidate radio halo.