The Average Mass and Light Profiles of Galaxy Clusters

Abstract

The systematic errors in the virial mass-to-light ratio, M_v/L, of galaxy clusters as an estimator of the field M/L value are assessed. We overlay 14 clusters in redshift space to create an ensemble cluster which averages over substructure and asymmetries. The combined sample, including background, contains about 1150 galaxies, extending to a projected radius of about twice r_200. The radius r_200, defined as where the mean interior density is 200 times the critical density, is expected to contain the bulk of the virialized cluster mass. The dynamically derived M(r_200)/L(r_200) of the ensemble is 0.82+/-0.14. The M_v/L overestimate is attributed to not taking into account the surface pressure term in the virial equation. Under the assumption that the velocity anisotropy parameter is in the range 0