1997/11/04 by Claus Beisbart, Thomas Buchert
Physics and Astronomy · #astro-ph
published as Proceedings of the 12th Potsdam Cosmology Workshop, World Scientific 1998, V. Mueller et al. (eds.), 197-200 · LaTeX2e 2 pages with 8 figures; uses sprocl.sty, to appear in 12th Potsdam cosmology workshop
arxiv created 1997/11/04 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01
The morphology of galaxy clusters is quantified using Minkowski functionals, especially the vector-valued ones, which contain directional information and are related to curvature centroids. The asymmetry of clusters and the amount of their substructure can be characterized in a unique way using these measures. -- We briefly introduce vector-valued Minkowski functionals (also known as Quermaßvectors) and suggest their application to cluster data in terms of a morphological characterization of excursion sets. Furthermore, we develop robust structure functions which describe the dynamical state of a cluster and study the evolution of clusters using numerical simulations.