Superclusters of Galaxies from the 2Df Redshift Survey I
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A&A 462, 811–825 (2007) Astronomy DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20065296 & c ESO 2007 Astrophysics Superclusters of galaxies from the 2dF redshift survey I. The catalogue J. Einasto1, M. Einasto1,E.Tago1, E. Saar1, G. Hütsi1, M. Jõeveer1, L. J. Liivamägi1, I. Suhhonenko1, J. Jaaniste2, P. Heinämäki3, V. Müller4, A. Knebe4, and D. Tucker5 1 Tartu Observatory, 61602 Tõravere, Estonia e-mail: [email protected] 2 Estonian University of Life Sciences 3 Tuorla Observatory, Väisäläntie 20, Piikkiö, Finland 4 Astrophysical Institute Potsdam, An der Sternwarte 16, 14482 Potsdam, Germany 5 Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, MS 127, PO Box 500, Batavia, IL 60510, USA Received 28 March 2006 / Accepted 25 October 2006 ABSTRACT Aims. We use the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey data to compile catalogues of superclusters for the Northern and Southern regions of the 2dFGRS, altogether 543 superclusters at redshifts 0.009 ≤ z ≤ 0.2. Methods. We analyse methods of compiling supercluster catalogues and use results of the Millennium Simulation to investigate possible selection effects and errors. We find that the most effective method is the density field method using smoothing with an Epanechnikov kernel of radius 8 h−1 Mpc. Results. We derive positions of the highest luminosity density peaks and find the most luminous cluster in the vicinity of the peak, this cluster is considered as the main cluster and its brightest galaxy the main galaxy of the supercluster. In catalogues we give equa- torial coordinates and distances of superclusters as determined by positions of their main clusters. We also calculate the expected total luminosities of the superclusters. Key words. cosmology: large-scale structure of the Universe – galaxies: clusters: general 1. Introduction CMB distortion via the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect, which can be detected using new satellites, such as PLANCK. It is presently well established that galaxies form various sys- tems from groups and clusters to superclusters. Galaxy systems Early studies of superclusters of galaxies were reviewed by are not located in space randomly: groups and clusters are mostly Oort (1983) and Bahcall (1988). These studies were based on ob- aligned to chains (filaments), and the space between groups servational data about galaxies, as well as on data about nearby is populated with galaxies along the chain. The largest non- groups and clusters of galaxies. Classical, relatively deep all-sky percolating galaxy systems are superclusters of galaxies which supercluster catalogues were constructed using the Abell (1958) contain clusters and groups of galaxies with their surrounding and Abell et al. (1989) cluster catalogues by Zucca et al. (1993), galaxy filaments. Einasto et al. (1994, 1997, 2001, hereafter E94, E97, E01) and Kalinkov & Kuneva (1995). Superclusters of galaxies have been used for a wide range of studies. Superclusters are produced by large-scale density The modern era of the study of various systems of galaxies perturbations which evolve very slowly. Thus the distribution began when new galaxy redshift surveys began to be published. of superclusters contains information on the large-scale initial The first of such surveys was the Las Campanas Galaxy Redshift density field, and their properties can be used as a cosmologi- Survey, followed by the 2 degree Field Galaxy Redshift Survey cal probe to discriminate between different cosmological mod- (2dFGRS) and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). These sur- els. The internal structure of superclusters conserves informa- veys cover large regions of the sky and are rather deep allowing tion on the galaxy formation and evolution on medium scales. to investigation of the distribution of galaxies and systems of Properties of galaxies and groups in various supercluster envi- galaxies out to fairly large distances from us. Group catalogues ronments can be used to study the evolution of galaxies on small based on the 2dFGRS survey were published by Eke et al. (2004) scales. Superclusters are massive density enhancements and thus and Tago et al. (2006, hereafter T06), and for the SDSS survey great gravitational attractors which distort the background radi- by Berlind et al. (2006). Einasto et al. (2003a,b, hereafter E03a ation, yielding information on the gravitation field through the and E03b) used equatorial slices of the SDSS and 6 slices of the Las Campanas Galaxy Redshift Survey to find superclus- Catalogue is only available in electronic form at the CDS via ters using 2-dimensional density field. Based on 3-dimensional anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or via data catalogues of superclusters were compiled on the basis of http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/462/811 these new surveys by Basilakos (2003), Erdogdu et al. (2004) Article published by EDP Sciences and available at http://www.aanda.org or http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20065296 812 J. Einasto et al.: 2dFGRS supercluster catalogue and Porter & Raychaudhury (2005). These observational studies Table 1. Data on 2dF samples. have been complemented by the analysis of the evolution of su- perclusters and the supercluster-void network (Shandarin et al. Sample RA Dec Ngal Nscl V 2004; Einasto et al. 2005b; Wray et al. 2006). deg deg 106 (Mpc/h)3 So far the attention of astronomers has been focused ei- 2dFN 147.5 223 –6.3 +2.3 78 067 229 12.42 ther on small compact systems, such as groups and clusters, or 2dFS 325 55 –36.0 –23.5 106 328 314 18.71 on very large systems – rich superclusters of galaxies. Modern redshift surveys make it possible to investigate not only these Table 2. Data on comparison samples. classical systems of galaxies, but also galaxy systems of inter- mediate sizes and richness classes of various sizes, from poor Sample Ngal r0 D0 Nscl V galaxy filaments in large cosmic voids to rich superclusters. In h−1 Mpc 106 (Mpc/h)3 the present series of papers we shall discuss the richest of these Mill.A8 8 964 936 8 5.0 1444 125 systems – superclusters of galaxies. We shall use the term “su- Mill.A6 8 964 936 6 6.3 1802 125 percluster” for galaxy systems larger than groups and clusters Mill.A4 8 964 936 4 7.6 2244 125 which have a certain minimal mean overdensity of the smoothed Mill.A1 8 964 936 0.5 8.75 32802 125 luminosity density field but are still non-percolating. They form Mill.F8 2 094 187 8 5.0 1734 125 intermediate-scale galaxy systems between groups and poor fil- Mill.V8 1 336 622 8 5.0 1325 125 aments and the whole cosmic web. The main goal of this paper is to compile a new catalogue of superclusters using the 2dFGRS. To get a representative sta- very diluted at large distances, thus we restrict our sample to tistical sample we include in our catalogue superclusters of all a redshift limit z = 0.2; we apply a lower limit z ≥ 0.009 to avoid richness classes, starting from poor superclusters of the Local the confusion with unclassified objects and stars. In the calculat- Supercluster class, and ending with very rich superclusters of the ing distances we use a flat cosmological model with the param- Shapley Supercluster class (see Proust et al. 2006a,b, and refer- eters: matter density Ωm = 0.3, dark energy density ΩΛ = 0.7 ences therein). In the compilation of a statistically homogeneous (both in units of the critical cosmological density), and the mass −1 and complete sample of superclusters we make use of the pos- variance on 8 h Mpc scale in linear theory σ8 = 0.84. Here sibility to recover the true expected total luminosity of galaxy and elsewhere h is the present-day dimensionless Hubble con- −1 −1 systems, using weights to compensate the absence of galaxies stant in units of 100 km s Mpc . In Table 1 Ngal is the number from the sample which are too faint to fall within the observa- of galaxies, Nscl is the number of superclusters found, and V is tional window of the survey. The use of weights has some un- the volume covered by the sample (in units 10 6 (Mpc/h)3). These certainties, so we have to investigate errors and possible biases numbers are based upon version B of the catalogue of groups by of our procedure to recover the total luminosity of superclusters. Tago et al. (T06). This version of the group catalogue was found To investigate selection effects and biases we shall investigate using the Friend-of-Friend (FoF) method with a linking length, properties of simulated superclusters based on the catalogue of which increased slightly with distance, as suggested by the study galaxies by Croton et al. (2006) of the Millennium Simulation of of the behaviour of groups with distance (for details see T06). the evolution of the structure of the Universe by Springel et al. Galaxies were included in the 2dFGRS, if their corrected (2005). In an accompanying paper we shall investigate proper- apparent magnitude bj lay in the interval from m1 = 13.5to ties of superclusters and compare properties of real superclusters m2 = 19.45. Actually the faint limit m2 varies from field to field. with those of simulated superclusters (Einasto et al. 2007, here- In calculation of the weights these deviations have been taken after Paper II). An analysis of the luminosity function of super- into account, as well as the fraction of observed galaxies among clusters using both 2dFGRS and SDSS superclusters is presented all galaxies up to the fixed magnitude limit. This fraction is typ- by Einasto et al. (2006a). ically about 0.9, while in rare cases it might become very small.