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D. A. Perley (Cornell University), P. J. Green, W. A. Barkhouse, D.-W. Kim, J. D. Silverman, P. W. Maksym, R. A. Cameron (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)
We report the detection of several previously unknown serendipitous X-ray clusters, and present a new method for detecting clusters in multiband optical data. We first search 62 Chandra observations retrieved from archival data in ChaMP, the Chandra Multiwavelength Project, for extended sources, and use optical data to confirm new detections by the identification of red sequences. Five previously known clusters (three from earlier ChaMP searches) were detected, confirming the utility of our technique. We detect two new clusters: (1) a low-luminosity system merging with a more massive, previously known cluster, and (2) a high luminosity cluster at z=0.48. We also describe a new method for detecting clusters in optical survey data using the Voronoi Tessellation and Percolation (VTP) algorithm in combination with red sequence-based color filtration. In tests of the algorithm on fields containing known clusters, our color-filtered VTP successfully detects a significant fraction of optically faint, X-ray selected clusters. Results of running filtered VTP on the full ChaMP optical database are forthcoming. This project was supported by the NSF REU program under grant AST-9731923 and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. We gratefully acknowledge support for the ChaMP from NASA under CXC archival research grant AR2-3009X.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 35#5
© 2003. The American Astronomical Soceity.