Cosmological Constraints from the SDSS maxBCG Cluster Catalog

Journal Article · Sun Feb 01 00:00:00 EST 2009 · Astrophys.J.

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/708/1/645· OSTI ID:3020079

Rozo, Eduardo ^[1]; Wechsler, Risa H. ^[2]; Rykoff, Eli S. ^[3]; Annis, James T. ^[4]; Becker, Matthew R. ^[5]; Evrard, August E. ^[6]; Frieman, Joshua A. ^[7]; Hansen, Sarah M. ^[8]; Hao, Jiangang ^[9]; Johnston, David E. ^[10]; Koester, Benjamin P. ^[11]; McKay, Timothy A. ^[6]; Sheldon, Erin S. ^[12]; Weinberg, David H. ^[13]

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1. Ohio State U., CCAPP
2. KIPAC, Menlo Park; SLAC
3. UC, Santa Barbara
4. Fermilab
5. Chicago U.; Chicago U., KICP
6. Michigan U.; Michigan U., MCTP
7. Fermilab; Chicago U., KICP; Chicago U.
8. UC, Santa Cruz
9. Michigan U.
10. Northwestern U.
11. Chicago U., KICP; Chicago U.
12. Brookhaven
13. Ohio State U., CCAPP; Ohio State U.

We use the abundance and weak lensing mass measurements of the SDSS maxBCG cluster catalog to simultaneously constrain cosmology and the richness--mass relation of the clusters. Assuming a flat \LambdaCDM cosmology, we find \sigma_8(\Omega_m/0.25)^{0.41} = 0.832\pm 0.033 after marginalization over all systematics. In common with previous studies, our error budget is dominated by systematic uncertainties, the primary two being the absolute mass scale of the weak lensing masses of the maxBCG clusters, and uncertainty in the scatter of the richness--mass relation. Our constraints are fully consistent with the WMAP five-year data, and in a joint analysis we find \sigma_8=0.807\pm 0.020 and \Omega_m=0.265\pm 0.016, an improvement of nearly a factor of two relative to WMAP5 alone. Our results are also in excellent agreement with and comparable in precision to the latest cosmological constraints from X-ray cluster abundances. The remarkable consistency among these results demonstrates that cluster abundance constraints are not only tight but also robust, and highlight the power of optically-selected cluster samples to produce precision constraints on cosmological parameters.

• Research Organization: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States); Chicago U., KICP; UC, Santa Barbara; Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States); Chicago U.; Michigan U.; Ohio State U.; Northwestern U.; Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States); UC, Santa Cruz; Ohio State U., CCAPP; Michigan U., MCTP
• Sponsoring Organization: US Department of Energy
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-07CH11359
• OSTI ID: 3020079
• Report Number(s): FERMILAB-PUB-09-074-A; SLAC-PUB-13719; oai:inspirehep.net:813907; arXiv:0902.3702
• Journal Information: Astrophys.J., Journal Name: Astrophys.J. Vol. 708
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English