Scientists precisely measure total amount of matter in the universe
Determining the mass of galaxy clusters

Date:
September 28, 2020
Source:
University of California - Riverside
Summary:
A top goal in cosmology is to precisely measure the total amount
of matter in the universe, a daunting exercise for even the most
mathematically proficient. Scientists have now done just that.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
A top goal in cosmology is to precisely measure the total amount of matter
in the universe, a daunting exercise for even the most mathematically proficient.

A team led by scientists at the University of California, Riverside,
has now done just that.


========================================================================== Reporting in the Astrophysical Journal, the team determined that matter
makes up 31% of the total amount of matter and energy in the universe,
with the remainder consisting of dark energy.

"To put that amount of matter in context, if all the matter in the
universe were spread out evenly across space, it would correspond to an
average mass density equal to only about six hydrogen atoms per cubic
meter," said first author Mohamed Abdullah, a graduate student in the
UCR Department of Physics and Astronomy. "However, since we know 80% of
matter is actually dark matter, in reality, most of this matter consists
not of hydrogen atoms but rather of a type of matter which cosmologists
don't yet understand." Abdullah explained that one well-proven technique
for determining the total amount of matter in the universe is to compare
the observed number and mass of galaxy clusters per unit volume with predictions from numerical simulations.

Because present-day galaxy clusters have formed from matter that has
collapsed over billions of years under its own gravity, the number of
clusters observed at the present time is very sensitive to cosmological conditions and, in particular, the total amount of matter.

"A higher percentage of matter would result in more clusters," Abdullah
said.

"The 'Goldilocks' challenge for our team was to measure the number
of clusters and then determine which answer was 'just right.' But
it is difficult to measure the mass of any galaxy cluster accurately
because most of the matter is dark so we can't see it with telescopes."
To overcome this difficulty, the UCR-led team of astronomers first
developed "GalWeight," a cosmological tool to measure the mass of a galaxy cluster using the orbits of its member galaxies. The researchers then
applied their tool to observations from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
(SDSS) to create "GalWCat19," a publicly available catalog of galaxy
clusters. Finally, they compared the number of clusters in their new
catalog with simulations to determine the total amount of matter in
the universe.

"We have succeeded in making one of the most precise measurements ever
made using the galaxy cluster technique," said coauthor Gillian Wilson,
a professor of physics and astronomy at UCR in whose lab Abdullah
works. "Moreover, this is the first use of the galaxy orbit technique
which has obtained a value in agreement with those obtained by teams
who used noncluster techniques such as cosmic microwave background anisotropies, baryon acoustic oscillations, Type Ia supernovae, or gravitational lensing." "A huge advantage of using our GalWeight galaxy
orbit technique was that our team was able to determine a mass for each
cluster individually rather than rely on more indirect, statistical
methods," said the third coauthor Anatoly Klypin, an expert in numerical simulations and cosmology.

By combining their measurement with those from the other teams that
used different techniques, the UCR-led team was able to determine a best combined value, concluding that matter makes up 31.5+/-1.3% of the total
amount of matter and energy in the universe.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by
University_of_California_-_Riverside. Original written by Iqbal
Pittalwala. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Mohamed H. Abdullah, Anatoly Klypin, Gillian Wilson. Cosmological
Constraints on O m and s 8 from Cluster Abundances Using the
GalWCat19 Optical-spectroscopic SDSS Catalog. The Astrophysical
Journal, 2020; 901 (2): 90 DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/aba619 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200928125046.htm

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