2004/03/31 by Massimiliano Bonamente, Marshall K. Joy, John E. Carlstrom +3 · 4 citations
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Statistical and numerical algorithms #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/423420
ApJ accepted, scheduled for ApJ 10 October 2004, v614 issue. Title changed, added more convergence diagnostic tests, Figure 7 converted to lower resolution for easier download, other minor changes
arxiv created 2004/06/21 · openalex publication_date 2004/10/08 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
X-ray and Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect data can be combined to determine the distance to galaxy clusters. High-resolution X-ray data are now available from Chandra , which provides both spatial and spectral information, and Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect data were obtained from the BIMA and Owens Valley Radio Observatory (OVRO) arrays. We introduce a Markov Chain Monte Carlo procedure for the joint analysis of X-ray and Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect data. The advantages of this method are the high computational efficiency and the ability to measure simultaneously the probability distribution of all parameters of interest, such as the spatial and spectral properties of the cluster gas and also for derivative quantities such as the distance to the cluster. We demonstrate this technique by applying it to the Chandra X-ray data and the OVRO radio data for the galaxy cluster A611. Comparisons with traditional likelihood ratio methods reveal the robustness of the method. This method will be used in follow-up papers to determine the distances to a large sample of galaxy clusters.