WMAP5 and the Cluster Mass Function

Abstract

The recently revised cosmological constraints from the Five-Year WMAP data ameliorate previous tension between cosmological constraints from the microwave background and from cluster abundances. We demonstrate that the revised estimates of cosmological parameters are in excellent agreement with the mass function of X-ray clusters in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Velocity segregation between galaxies and the underlying dark matter could cause virial mass estimates to be biased, causing the mass scale of the mass function to be offset from the true value. Modest velocity segregation ($σ_{gxy}/σ_{DM}$=1.13$^{+0.06}_{-0.05}$) is sufficient to match the mass function to the Five-Year WMAP results. When the new WMAP results are combined with constraints from supernovae and baryon acoustic oscillations, there is no need for velocity segregation ($σ_{gxy}/σ_{DM}$=1.05$\pm$0.05). This result agrees with expectations for velocity segregation from state-of-the-art numerical simulations of clusters. Together with the improved agreement between the new WMAP results and recent cosmic shear measurements, this result demonstrates that the amplitude of large-scale structure in the nearby universe matches that predicted from the structure seen in the microwave background. The new constraint we place on velocity segregation in clusters indicates that virial mass estimates for clusters are reasonably accurate. This result suggests that future cluster surveys will be able to probe both cosmological parameters and fundamental cluster physics.