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Planck first results on galaxy clusters: the early Sunyaev-Zel’dovich (SZ) galaxy cluster sample

António C. da Silva
CAUP

Abstract
The Early SZ cluster sample (ESZ) is part of the first release of Planck products, namely the Early Release Compact Source Catalogue (ERCSC) and companion publications, made public recently. It is a compilation of the first high reliability detections of all-sky SZ clusters and cluster candidates observed by the Planck satellite during the first 10 months of survey. The list contains a total of 189 objects. A comprehensive cluster validation program revealed 20 of these objects as new cluster candidates, and 80% of the know sources as first time cluster observations at Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) frequencies. Follow-up observations on 11 of the new systems, with the XMM-Newton satellite, confirmed them as galaxy clusters, as well as gave indications that Planck may be revealing a population of massive dynamically perturbed clusters that are under-represented in X-ray surveys.
In this talk we will overview the main properties of the ESZ cluster sample and present the first scientific results on galaxy clusters from Planck data. This includes a discussion on how the present data provides a robust, high-quality, local reference for the calibration of SZ cluster scaling laws, as well as discuss first results for their evolution. These are crucial aspects to take into account when validating SZ clusters as cosmological probes.

2011 February 09, 13:30

IA/U.Porto
Centro de Astrofísica da Universidade do Porto (Auditorium)
Rua das Estrelas, 4150-762 Porto

Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa Universidade do Porto Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade de Coimbra
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia COMPETE 2020 PORTUGAL 2020 União Europeia