Chandra measurements of a complete sample of X-ray luminous galaxy clusters: The luminosity-mass relation

Abstract

We present the results of work involving a statistically complete sample of 34 galaxy clusters, in the redshift range 0.15 ≤ z ≤ 0.3 observed with Chandra. We investigate the luminosity–mass (LM) relation for the cluster sample, with the masses obtained via a full hydrostatic mass analysis. We utilize a method to fully account for selection biases when modelling the LM relation, and find that the LM relation is significantly different from the relation modelled when not account for selection effects. We find that the luminosity of our clusters is 2.2 ± 0.4 times higher (when accounting for selection effects) than the average for a given mass and its mass is 30 per cent lower than the population average for a given luminosity. Equivalently, using the LM relation measured from this sample without correcting for selection biases would lead to the underestimation by 40 per cent of the average mass of a cluster with a given luminosity. Comparing the hydrostatic masses to mass estimates determined from the YX parameter, we find that they are entirely consistent, irrespective of the dynamical state of the cluster. © 2016 The Authors Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society