Sunyaev-Zel'dovich-measured Pressure Profiles from the Bolocam X-Ray/SZ Galaxy Cluster Sample

Abstract

We describe Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect measurements and analysis of the intracluster medium (ICM) pressure profiles of a set of 45 massive galaxy clusters imaged using Bolocam at the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory. We deproject the average pressure profile of our sample into 13 logarithmically spaced radial bins between 0.07R_(500) and 3.5R_(500), and we find that a generalized Navarro, Frenk, and White (gNFW) profile describes our data with sufficient goodness-of-fit and best-fit parameters (C_(500), α, β, γ, P_0 = 1.18, 0.86, 3.67, 0.67, 4.29). We use X-ray data to define cool-core and disturbed subsamples of clusters, and we constrain the average pressure profiles of each of these subsamples. We find that, given the precision of our data, the average pressure profiles of disturbed and cool-core clusters are consistent with one another at R≳ 0.15R_(500), with cool-core systems showing indications of higher pressure at R≾ 0.15R_(500). In addition, for the first time, we place simultaneous constraints on the mass scaling of cluster pressure profiles, their ensemble mean profile, and their radius-dependent intrinsic scatter between 0.1R_(500) and 2.0R_(500). The scatter among profiles is minimized at radii between ≃ 0.2R_(500) and ≃ 0.5R_(500), with a value of ≃ 20%. These results for the intrinsic scatter are largely consistent with previous analyses, most of which have relied heavily on X-ray derived pressures of clusters at significantly lower masses and redshifts compared to our sample. Therefore, our data provide further evidence that cluster pressure profiles are largely universal with scatter of ≃ 20%-40% about the universal profile over a wide range of masses and redshifts.

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