Tracing the mass profiles of galaxy clusters with member galaxies

Abstract

The mass distribution of galaxy clusters can be determined from the study of the projected phase-space distribution of cluster galaxies. The main advantage of this method as compared to others, is that it allows determination of cluster mass profiles out to very large radii. Here I review recent analyses and results on this topic. In particular, I briefly describe the Jeans and Caustic methods, and the problems one has to face in applying these methods to galaxy systems. Then, I summarize the most recent and important results on the mass distributions of galaxy groups, clusters, and superclusters. Additional covered topics are the relative distributions of the dark and baryonic components, and the orbits of galaxies in clusters.