- May 30, 2018, 2:00 pm US/Central
- Tom McClintock, University of Arizona
Galaxy clusters are a powerful probe of cosmological parameters and host up to hundreds of galaxies. These clusters reside in massive dark matter halos, which are virialized structures comprised of up to a few times 10^15 solar masses. Forming the foundation of galaxy cluster cosmology are two critical components: measurements of cluster masses, and models of the abundance of dark matter halos. In this talk I will detail the measurement of cluster masses found in the Dark Energy Survey. The normalization of the mean mass–richness scaling relation was measured with 5 percent accuracy, which is the most accurate measurement made to date. Additionally, I will detail the construction of new simulation based models, or cosmic emulators, for the halo mass function to be used for galaxy cluster cosmology in future surveys. Finally, I outline ongoing efforts to improve lensing models of galaxy clusters that will enable numerous avenues for performing abundance analyses.