The eROSITA Final Equatorial-Depth Survey (eFEDS)

Abstract

Context. In 2019, the eROSITA telescope on board the Russian-German satellite Spectrum-Roentgen-Gamma (SRG) began to perform a deep all-sky X-ray survey with the aim of identifying ~100 000 clusters and groups over the course of four years. As part of its performance verification phase, a ~140 deg2 survey, called eROSITA Final Equatorial-Depth Survey (eFEDS), was performed. With a depth typical of the all-sky survey after four years, it allows tests of tools and methods as well as improved predictions for the all-sky survey. Aims. As part of this effort, a catalog of 542 X-ray selected galaxy group and cluster candidates was compiled. In this paper we present the optical follow-up, with the aim of providing redshifts and cluster confirmation for the full sample. Furthermore, we aim to provide additional information on the dynamical state, richness, and optical center of the clusters. Finally, we aim to evaluate the impact of optical cluster confirmation on the purity and completeness of the X-ray selected sample. Methods. We used optical imaging data from the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program and from the Legacy Survey to identify optical counterparts to the X-ray detected cluster candidates. We make use of the multi-component matched filter cluster confirmation tool (MCMF), as well as of the optical cluster finder CAMIRA to derive cluster redshifts and richnesses. MCMF provided the probabilities with which an optical structure would be a chance superposition with the X-ray candidate. These probabilities were used to identify the best optical counterpart as well as to confirm an X-ray candidate as a cluster. The impact of this confirmation process on catalog purity and completeness was estimated using optical to X-ray scaling relations as well as simulations. The resulting catalog was furthermore matched with public group and cluster catalogs. Optical estimators of the cluster dynamical state were constructed based on density maps of the red-sequence galaxies at the cluster redshift. Results. By providing redshift estimates for all 542 candidates, we construct an optically confirmed sample of 477 clusters and groups with a residual contamination of 6%. Of these, 470 (98.5%) are confirmed using MCMF, and 7 systems are added through cross-matching with spectroscopic group catalogs. Using observable-to-observable scaling and the applied confirmation threshold, we predict that 8 ± 2 real systems have been excluded with the MCMF cut required to build this low-contamination sample. This number agrees well with the 7 systems found through cross-matching that were not confirmed with MCMF. The predicted redshift and mass distribution of this catalog agree well with simulations. Thus, we expect that these 477 systems include >99% of all true clusters in the candidate list. Using an MCMF-independent method, we confirm that the catalog contamination of the confirmed subsample is 6 ± 3%. Application of the same method to the full candidate list yields 17 ± 3%, consistent with estimates coming from the fraction of confirmed systems of ~17% and with expectations from simulations of ~20%. We also present a sample of merging cluster candidates based on the derived estimators of the cluster dynamical state.

Cosmological Constraints from Galaxy Clusters and Groups in the eROSITA Final Equatorial Depth Survey

“…In this work, we impose the threshold 𝑓 cont < 0.3, reducing the cluster catalog from 542 to 477 clusters. The contamination due to point sources in the initial cluster catalog is estimated to be ≈ 20% (Liu et al 2022a) using the simulations (Liu et al 2022b); therefore, the residual contamination after the optical confirmation is expected to be at a level of ≈ 0.3 × 20% ≈ 6% (Klein et al 2022). A more stringent cut of 𝑓 cont < 0.2, as previously used in the weak-lensing mass calibration (Chiu et al 2022), would further discard ≈ 20 clusters (corresponding to a 5% difference in the sample size) and reduce the contamination rate to ≈ 4%.…”

“…After the construction of the cluster catalog, each cluster candidate is then further analysed using the optical imaging from the DESI Legacy Imaging Survey (Dey et al 2019) and the Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) Subaru Strategy Program (Aihara et al 2018a). This optical confirmation analysis is carried out using the Multi-Component Matched Filter (MCMF; Klein et al 2018) algorithm with the estimated properties fully described and publicly available in Klein et al (2022). We refer the reader to Klein et al (2022) for a complete description and only summarize the key results, as follows.…”

“…This optical confirmation analysis is carried out using the Multi-Component Matched Filter (MCMF; Klein et al 2018) algorithm with the estimated properties fully described and publicly available in Klein et al (2022). We refer the reader to Klein et al (2022) for a complete description and only summarize the key results, as follows. For each cluster candidate centering at the X-ray center, the MCMF algorithm is employed to deliver (1) the photometric redshift 𝑧 cl using the overdensity of red galaxies (Gladders & Yee 2000), (2) the optical richness 𝜆, and (3) the optical contamination estimator 𝑓 cont , which is related to the probability of detecting a source with the observed 𝜆 at the redshift 𝑧 cl along a random line of sight.…”

“…in which H is the heaviside step function, 𝑧 min and 𝑧 max are fixed to 0.1 and 1.2, as the minimum and maximum redshifts used in this work, and 𝜆 min (𝑧) is the redshift-dependent richness threshold that enforces the MCMF filtering criterion of 𝑓 cont < 0.3 (Klein et al 2022). Although the observed count rate 𝜂 is used as the X-ray selection observable, we stress that the selection function Θ does not depend on 𝜂.…”

“…Prior to the all-sky survey, the eROSITA Final Equatorial Depth Survey (eFEDS) was first carried out as part of the performance verification phase of the eROSITA mission. There are 540 X-ray selected clusters in eFEDS with a survey area of ≈ 140 deg 2 with systems extending to redshift 𝑧 ≈ 1.3 (Liu et al 2022a;Klein et al 2022). The data products and catalogs have been entirely released in the Early Data Release 1 of the eROSITA mission with a series of studies on the characterization of X-ray properties (e.g., Liu et al 2022a;Ghirardini et al 2021;Bahar et al 2022).…”