A GMBCG GALAXY CLUSTER CATALOG OF 55,424 RICH CLUSTERS FROM SDSS DR7

Journal Article · Tue Dec 14 23:00:00 EST 2010 · Astrophysical Journal, Supplement Series

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0067-0049/191/2/254· OSTI ID:21454904

Jiangang, Hao; Annis, James; Johnston, David E ^[1]; McKay, Timothy A; Evrard, August; Siegel, Seth R; Gerdes, David ^[2]; Koester, Benjamin P ^[3]; Rykoff, Eli S ^[4]; Rozo, Eduardo ^[5]; Wechsler, Risa H; Busha, Michael ^[6]; Becker, Matthew ^[7]; Sheldon, Erin ^[8]

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1. Center for Particle Astrophysics, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia, IL 60510 (United States)
2. Department of Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 (United States)
3. Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637 (United States)
4. Physics Department, University of California at Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106 (United States)
5. Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637 (United States)
6. Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, Physics Department, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305 (United States)
7. Department of Physics, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637 (United States)
8. Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973 (United States)

We present a large catalog of optically selected galaxy clusters from the application of a new Gaussian Mixture Brightest Cluster Galaxy (GMBCG) algorithm to SDSS Data Release 7 data. The algorithm detects clusters by identifying the red-sequence plus brightest cluster galaxy (BCG) feature, which is unique for galaxy clusters and does not exist among field galaxies. Red-sequence clustering in color space is detected using an Error Corrected Gaussian Mixture Model. We run GMBCG on 8240 deg{sup 2} of photometric data from SDSS DR7 to assemble the largest ever optical galaxy cluster catalog, consisting of over 55,000 rich clusters across the redshift range from 0.1 < z < 0.55. We present Monte Carlo tests of completeness and purity and perform cross-matching with X-ray clusters and with the maxBCG sample at low redshift. These tests indicate high completeness and purity across the full redshift range for clusters with 15 or more members.

• OSTI ID: 21454904
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Supplement Series, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal, Supplement Series Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 191; ISSN 0067-0049; ISSN APJSA2
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
CALCULATION METHODS
COLOR
DISPERSIONS
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
GALAXIES
GALAXY CLUSTERS
IONIZING RADIATIONS
MIXTURES
MONTE CARLO METHOD
OPTICAL PROPERTIES
ORGANOLEPTIC PROPERTIES
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
RADIATIONS
RED SHIFT
X RADIATION