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Full list of authors: Middei, Riccardo; Liodakis, Ioannis; Perri, Matteo; Puccetti, Simonetta; Cavazzuti, Elisabetta; Di Gesu, Laura; Ehlert, Steven R.; Madejski, Grzegorz; Marscher, Alan P.; Marshall, Herman L.; Muleri, Fabio; Negro, Michela; Jorstad, Svetlana G.; Agis-Gonzalez, Beatriz; Agudo, Ivan; Bonnoli, Giacomo; Bernardos, Maria, I; Casanova, Victor; Garcia-Comas, Maya; Husillos, Cesar; Marchini, Alessandro; Sota, Alfredo; Kouch, Pouya M.; Lindfors, Elina; Borman, George A.; Kopatskaya, Evgenia N.; Larionova, Elena G.; Morozova, Daria A.; Savchenko, Sergey S.; Vasilyev, Andrey A.; Zhovtan, Alexey, V; Casadio, Carolina; Escudero, Juan; Myserlis, Ioannis; Hales, Antonio; Kameno, Seiji; Kneissl, Ruediger; Messias, Hugo; Nagai, Hiroshi; Blinov, Dmitry; Bourbah, Ioakeim G.; Kiehlmann, Sebastian; Kontopodis, Evangelos; Mandarakas, Nikos; Romanopoulos, Stylianos; Skalidis, Raphael; Vervelaki, Anna; Masiero, Joseph R.; Mawet, Dimitri; Millar-Blanchaer, Maxwell A.; Panopoulou, Georgia, V; Tinyanont, Samaporn; Berdyugin, Andrei, V; Kagitani, Masato; Kravtsov, Vadim; Sakanoi, Takeshi; Imazawa, Ryo; Sasada, Mahito; Fukazawa, Yasushi; Kawabata, Koji S.; Uemura, Makoto; Mizuno, Tsunefumi; Nakaoka, Tatsuya; Akitaya, Hiroshi; Gurwell, Mark; Rao, Ramprasad; Di Lalla, Niccolo; Cibrario, Nicolo; Donnarumma, Immacolata; Kim, Dawoon E.; Omodei, Nicola; Pacciani, Luigi; Poutanen, Juri; Tavecchio, Fabrizio; Antonelli, Lucio A.; Bachetti, Matteo; Baldini, Luca; Baumgartner, Wayne H.; Bellazzini, Ronaldo; Bianchi, Stefano; Bongiorno, Stephen D.; Bonino, Raffaella; Brez, Alessandro; Bucciantini, Niccolo; Capitanio, Fiamma; Castellano, Simone; Ciprini, Stefano; Costa, Enrico; De Rosa, Alessandra; Del Monte, Ettore; Di Marco, Alessandro; Doroshenko, Victor; Dovciak, Michal; Enoto, Teruaki; Evangelista, Yuri; Fabiani, Sergio; Ferrazzoli, Riccardo; Garcia, Javier A.; Gunji, Shuichi; Hayashida, Kiyoshi; Heyl, Jeremy; Iwakiri, Wataru; Karas, Vladimir; Kitaguchi, Takao; Kolodziejczak, Jeffery J.; Krawczynski, Henric; La Monaca, Fabio; Latronico, Luca; Maldera, Simone; Manfreda, Alberto; Marin, Frederic; Marinucci, Andrea; Massaro, Francesco; Matt, Giorgio; Mitsuishi, Ikuyuki; Ng, C-Y; O'Dell, Stephen L.; Oppedisano, Chiara; Papitto, Alessandro; Pavlov, George G.; Peirson, Abel L.; Pesce-Rollins, Melissa; Petrucci, Pierre-Olivier; Pilia, Maura; Possenti, Andrea; Ramsey, Brian D.; Rankin, John; Ratheesh, Ajay; Romani, Roger W.; Sgro, Carmelo; Slane, Patrick; Soffitta, Paolo; Spandre, Gloria; Tamagawa, Toru; Taverna, Roberto; Tawara, Yuzuru; Tennant, Allyn F.; Thomas, Nicholas E.; Tombesi, Francesco; Trois, Alessio; Tsygankov, Sergey; Turolla, Roberto; Vink, Jacco; Weisskopf, Martin C.; Wu, Kinwah; Xie, Fei; Zane, Silvia.--This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited., Blazars are a class of jet-dominated active galactic nuclei with a typical double-humped spectral energy distribution. It is of common consensus that the synchrotron emission is responsible for the low frequency peak, while the origin of the high frequency hump is still debated. The analysis of X-rays and their polarization can provide a valuable tool to understand the physical mechanisms responsible for the origin of high-energy emission of blazars. We report the first observations of BL Lacertae (BL Lac) performed with the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer, from which an upper limit to the polarization degree ΠX < 12.6% was found in the 2–8 keV band. We contemporaneously measured the polarization in radio, infrared, and optical wavelengths. Our multiwavelength polarization analysis disfavors a significant contribution of proton-synchrotron radiation to the X-ray emission at these epochs. Instead, it supports a leptonic origin for the X-ray emission in BL Lac. © 2022. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society., The Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) is a joint US and Italian mission. The US contribution is supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and led and managed by its Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), with industry partner Ball Aerospace (contract NNM15AA18C). The Italian contribution is supported by the Italian Space Agency (Agenzia Spaziale Italiana, ASI) through contract ASI-OHBI-2017-12-I.0, agreements ASI-INAF-2017-12-H0 and ASI-INFN-2017.13-H0, and its Space Science Data Center (SSDC), and by the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF) and the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) in Italy. This research used data products provided by the IXPE Team (MSFC, SSDC, INAF, and INFN) and distributed with additional software tools by the High-Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC), at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). We acknowledge financial support from ASI-INAF agreement n. 2022-14-HH.0. The research at Boston University was supported in part by National Science Foundation grant AST-2108622 and NASA Swift Guest Investigator grant 80NSSC22K0537. This research has made use of data from the RoboPol program, a collaboration between Caltech, the University of Crete, IA-FORTH, IUCAA, the MPIfR, and the Nicolaus Copernicus University, which was conducted at Skinakas Observatory in Crete, Greece. The IAA-CSIC coauthors acknowledge financial support from the Spanish "Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion" (MCINN) through the "Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa" award for the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía-CSIC (SEV-2017-0709). Acquisition and reduction of the POLAMI, TOP-MAPCAR, and OSN data was supported in part by MICINN through grants AYA2016-80889-P and PID2019-107847RB-C44. The POLAMI observations were carried out at the IRAM 30 m Telescope. IRAM is supported by INSU/CNRS (France), MPG (Germany), and IGN (Spain). This Letter makes use of the following ALMA director's discretionary time data under proposal ESO#2021.A.00016.T. ALMA is a partnership of ESO (representing its member states), NSF (USA), and NINS (Japan), together with NRC (Canada), MOST, and ASIAA (Taiwan), and KASI (Republic of Korea), in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. The Joint ALMA Observatory is operated by ESO, AUI/NRAO, and NAOJ. Some of the data reported here are based on observations obtained at the Hale Telescope, Palomar Observatory as part of a continuing collaboration between the California Institute of Technology, NASA/JPL, Yale University, and the National Astronomical Observatories of China. This research made use of Photutils, an Astropy package for detection and photometry of astronomical sources (Bradley et al. 2019). G.V.P. acknowledges support by NASA through the NASA Hubble Fellowship grant #HST-HF2-51444.001-A awarded by the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS5-26555. The data in this study include observations made with the Nordic Optical Telescope, owned in collaboration by the University of Turku and Aarhus University, and operated jointly by Aarhus University, the University of Turku, and the University of Oslo, representing Denmark, Finland, and Norway, the University of Iceland and Stockholm University at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos, La Palma, Spain, of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias. The data presented here were obtained in part with ALFOSC, which is provided by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA) under a joint agreement with the University of Copenhagen and NOT. E.L. was supported by Academy of Finland projects 317636 and 320045. Part of the French contribution is supported by the Scientific Research National Center (CNRS) and the French Spatial Agency (CNES). Some of the data are based on observations collected at the Observatorio de Sierra Nevada, owned and operated by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA-CSIC). Further data are based on observations collected at the Centro Astronómico Hispano-Alemán (CAHA), operated jointly by Junta de Andalucía and Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (IAA-CSIC). D.B., S.K., R.S., and N. M. acknowledge support from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Unions Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No. 771282. C.C. acknowledges support by the European Research Council (ERC) under the HORIZON ERC Grants 2021 program under grant agreement No. 101040021. The Dipol-2 polarimeter was built in cooperation by the University of Turku, Finland, and the Leibniz Institut für Sonnenphysik, Germany, with support from the Leibniz Association grant SAW-2011-KIS-7. We are grateful to the Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii, for the allocated observing time. A.H. acknowledges The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. This work was supported by JST, the establishment of university fellowships toward the creation of science technology innovation; grant No. JPMJFS2129. This work was supported by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) KAKENHI grant Nos. JP21H01137. This work was also partially supported by Optical and Near-Infrared Astronomy Inter-University Cooperation Program from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) of Japan., With funding from the Spanish government through the "Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence" accreditation (CEX2021-001131-S).

We present observations using the Small Array of the Arcminute Microkelvin Imager (AMI; 14-18 GHz) of four Abell and three MACS clusters spanning 0.171-0.686 in redshift. We detect Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) signals in five of these without any attempt at source subtraction, although strong source contamination is present. With radio-source measurements from high-resolution observations, and under the assumptions of spherical $\beta$-model, isothermality and hydrostatic equilibrium, a Bayesian analysis of the data in the visibility plane detects extended SZ decrements in all seven clusters over and above receiver noise, radio sources and primary CMB imprints. Bayesian evidence ratios range from 10^{11}:1 to 10^{43}:1 for six of the clusters and 3000:1 for one with substantially less data than the others. We present posterior probability distributions for, e.g., total mass and gas fraction averaged over radii internal to which the mean overdensity is 1000, 500 and 200, r_200 being the virial radius. Reaching r_200 involves some extrapolation for the nearer clusters but not for the more-distant ones. We find that our estimates of gas fraction are low (compared with most in the literature) and decrease with increasing radius. These results appear to be consistent with the notion that gas temperature in fact falls with distance (away from near the cluster centre) out to the virial radius.

The apex-sz instrument is designed for the discovery and study of galaxy clusters at mm-wavelengths using the Sunyaev Zel’dovich effect. The receiver consists of 320 superconducting transition edge sensor (TES) bolometers cooled to 250 mK with the combination of a three stage He sorption fridge and mechanical pulse tube cooler. The detectors are instrumented with a frequency domain multiplexing readout system. The receiver is mounted on the 12 m apex telescope located at 5100 m on the Atacama plateau in Chile. For the first light engineering deployment of December 2005, the receiver was configured with a 55 element wedge of the bolometers and operating in the 150 GHz atmospheric window. During the engineering run we achieved significant milestones in our instrumentation development efforts, including celestial observations with a monolithically fabricated TES bolometer array cooled with a mechanical cooler and successful implementation of a SQUID-based MHz AC-biased readout. These technology demonstrations point the way toward future large TES bolometer array instruments. Here we describe the results of this deployment and future plans for the apex-sz instrument.

We present interferometric imaging at 33 GHz of the Corona Borealis supercluster, using the extended configuration of the Very Small Array. A total area of 24 deg² has been imaged, with an angular resolution of 11 arcmin and a sensitivity of 12 mJy beam⁻¹. The aim of these observations is to search for Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) detections from known clusters of galaxies in this supercluster and for a possible extended SZ decrement due to diffuse warm/hot gas in the intercluster medium. Hydrodynamical simulations suggest that a significant part of the missing baryons in the Local Universe may be located in superclusters. The maps constructed from these observations have a significant contribution from primordial fluctuations. We measure negative flux values in the positions of the 10 richest clusters in the region. Collectively, this implies a 3.0σ detection of the SZ effect. For two of these clusters, A2061 and A2065, we find decrements of approximately 2σ each. Our main result is the detection of two strong and resolved negative features at −70 ± 12 mJy beam⁻¹ (−157 ± 27 μK) and −103 ± 10 mJy beam⁻¹ (−230 ± 23 μK), respectively, located in a region with no known clusters, near the centre of the supercluster. We discuss their possible origins in terms of primordial cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies and/or SZ signals related either to unknown clusters or to a diffuse extended warm/hot gas distribution. Our analyses have revealed that a primordial CMB fluctuation is a plausible explanation for the weaker feature (probability of 37.82 per cent). For the stronger one, neither primordial CMB (probability of 0.38 per cent) nor SZ can account alone for its size and total intensity. The most reasonable explanation, then, is a combination of both primordial CMB and SZ signal. Finally, we explore what characteristics would be required for a filamentary structure consisting of warm/hot diffuse gas in order to produce a significant contribution to such a spot taking into account the constraints set by X-ray data.

We have observed the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect in a sample of five moderate-redshift clusters with the Ryle Telescope, and used them in conjunction with X-ray imaging and spectral data from ROSAT and ASCA to measure the Hubble constant. This sample was chosen with a strict X-ray flux limit using both the BCS and NORAS cluster catalogues to be well above the surface-brightness limit of the ROSAT All-Sky Survey, and hence to be unbiased with respect to the orientation of the cluster. This controls the major potential systematic effect in the SZ/X-ray method of measureing H0. Taking the weighted geometric mean of the results and including the main sources of random error, namely the noise in the SZ measurement, the uncertainty in the X-ray temperatures and the unknown ellipticity of the clusters, we find H0 = 59 +8/-7 km/s/Mpc assuming a standard CDM model with Omega_M = 1.0, Omega_Lambda = 0.0, or H0 = 65 +8/-7 km/s/Mpc if Omega_M = 0.3, Omega_Lambda = 0.7.

We present the power spectrum of the fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background detected by the Very Small Array (VSA) in its first season of observations in its compact configuration. We find clear detections of first and second acoustic peaks at l~200 and l~550, plus detection of power on scales up to l=800. The VSA power spectrum is in very good agreement with the results of the Boomerang, Dasi and Maxima telescopes despite the differing potential systematic errors.

We describe a maximum-likelihood technique for the removal of contaminating radio sources from interferometric observations of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect. This technique, based on a simultaneous fit for the radio sources and extended SZ emission, is also compared to techniques previously applied to Ryle Telescope observations and is found to be robust. The technique is then applied to new observations of the cluster Abell 611, and a decrement of -540 +/- 125 microJy/beam is found. This is combined with a ROSAT HRI image and a published ASCA temperature to give an Hubble constant estimate of 52+24-16 km/s/Mpc.

J.-B. Melin et al., We evaluate the construction methodology of an all-sky catalogue of galaxy clusters detected through the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect. We perform an extensive comparison of twelve algorithms applied to the same detailed simulations of the millimeter and submillimeter sky based on a Planck-like case. We present the results of this >SZ Challenge> in terms of catalogue completeness, purity, astrometric and photometric reconstruction. Our results provide a comparison of a representative sample of SZ detection algorithms and highlight important issues in their application. In our study case, we show that the exact expected number of clusters remains uncertain (about a thousand cluster candidates at |b| > 20 deg with 90% purity) and that it depends on the SZ model and on the detailed sky simulations, and on algorithmic implementation of the detection methods. We also estimate the astrometric precision of the cluster candidates which is found of the order of ~2 arcmin on average, and the photometric uncertainty of about 30%, depending on flux. © ESO, 2012.

We demonstrate the usability of mm-wavelength imaging data obtained from the APEX-SZ bolometer array to derive the radial temperature profile of the hot intra-cluster gas out to radius r_500 and beyond. The goal is to study the physical properties of the intra-cluster gas by using a non-parametric de-projection method that is, aside from the assumption of spherical symmetry, free from modeling bias. We use publicly available X-ray imaging data from the XMM-Newton observatory and our Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect (SZE) imaging data from the APEX-SZ experiment at 150 GHz to de-project the density and temperature profiles for the relaxed cluster Abell 2204. We derive the gas density, temperature and entropy profiles assuming spherical symmetry, and obtain the total mass profile under the assumption of hydrostatic equilibrium. For comparison with X-ray spectroscopic temperature models, a re-analysis of the recent Chandra observation is done with the latest calibration updates. Using the non-parametric modeling we demonstrate a decrease of gas temperature in the cluster outskirts, and also measure the gas entropy profile. These results are obtained for the first time independently of X-ray spectroscopy, using SZE and X-ray imaging data. The contribution of the SZE systematic uncertainties in measuring T_e at large radii is shown to be small compared to the Chandra systematic spectroscopic errors. The upper limit on M_200 derived from the non-parametric method is consistent with the NFW model prediction from weak lensing analysis., Replaced with the published version; A&A 519, A29 (2010)

We present VSA observations (~34GHz) on scales ~20 arcmin towards a complete, X-ray-flux-limited sample of seven clusters at redshift z, Replaces earlier version. 16 pages, 5 figures, LaTeX. Minor revisions to content, accepted by MNRAS for publication

We discuss prospects for cluster detection via the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect in a blank field survey with the proposed interferometer array, the Arcminute MicroKelvin Imager (AMI). Clusters of galaxies selected in the SZ effect probe cosmology and structure formation with little observational bias, because the effect directly measures integrated gas pressure, and does so independently of cluster redshift. We use hydrodynamical simulations in combination with the Press-Schechter expression to simulate SZ cluster sky maps. These are used with simulations of the observation process to gauge the expected SZ cluster counts. Even with a very conservative choice of parameters we find that AMI will discover at least several tens of clusters every year with total mass down to 10^14 solar masses; the numbers depends on factors such as the mean matter density, the density fluctuation power spectrum and cluster gas evolution. The AMI survey itself can distinguish between these to some degree, and parameter degeneracies are largely eliminated given optical and X-ray follow-up of these clusters; this will also permit direct investigation of cluster physics and what drives the evolution., Comment: 13 pages, 14 figures, submitted to MNRAS. A version with higher resolution images is available at http://www.mrao.cam.ac.uk/telescopes/ami; minor typos corrected

We present new Ryle Telescope (RT) observations of the Sunyaev Zel'dovich (SZ) decrement from the cluster Abell 773. The field contains a number of faint radio sources that required careful subtraction. We use ASCA observations to measure the gas temperature and a ROSAT HRI image to model the gas distribution. Normalising the gas distribution to fit the RT visibilities returns a value of H_0 of 77 (+19,-15) km/s/Mpc (1-sigma errors) for an Einstein-de-Sitter universe, or 85 (+20,-17) km/s/Mpc for a flat model with Omega_Lambda = 0.7. The errors quoted include estimates of the effects of the principal errors: noise in the SZ measurement, gas temperature uncertainty, and line-of sight depth uncertainty., 5 pages, 6 figures, MNRAS in press (minor revisions)

We report on a 16 ks observation with the ROSAT PSPC centred on the CMB decrement which Jones et al. (1997) report in the direction of the quasar pair PC1643+4631. We do not detect the X-ray emission which would be expected if the decrement were caused by Compton up-scattering of CMB photons by hot gas. Our upper limit on the bolometric X-ray flux within a circle of radius 1.5 arcmin is 1.9 x 10^-14 erg cm^-2 s^-1 at 99.7% significance. This is based on data in the energy range 0.5-2.0 keV and assumes bremsstrahlung with an observed temperature of 2.5 keV. We investigate the requirements for a spherical body of hot gas to produce the decrement while remaining consistent with our data. With conservative assumptions we establish a lower redshift limit of 2.8 at 95% confidence for a 10 keV isothermal object of any size. Even higher limits obtain for objects with temperatures between 0.2 and 10 keV. We conclude that the CMB decrement is unlikely to be caused by a galaxy cluster. We discuss alternatives to a single, spherical cluster, such as a double or elongated cluster, a supercluster/filament, or scattering by a moving cluster. None of these appears attractive, especially since another candidate for a decrement near a QSO pair and without an obvious associated cluster has been found. An explanation other than Comptonization by hot gas within a virialised object appears needed., 5 pages, 3 postscript files, submitted to MNRAS (letter), contribution to the proceedings of the Particle Physics and Early Universe Conference (PPEUC), University of Cambridge, 7-11 April 1997, at http://www.mrao.cam.ac.uk/ppeuc/astronomy/papers/kneissl/kneissl.html

Observational constraints on the density and temperature of the intergalactic medium are discussed. The use of correlation analysis between fluctuations in the cosmic microwave and X—ray backgrounds, for the study of inhomogeneities in the IGM is demonstrated, and a practical example from results of a cross-correlation analysis between ROSAT All-Sky Survey and COBE DMR data is given.

The Atacama pathfinder experiment Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (APEX-SZ) instrument is a millimeter-wave cryogenic receiver designed to observe galaxy clusters via the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect from the 12 m APEX telescope on the Atacama plateau in Chile. The receiver contains a focal plane of 280 superconducting transition-edge sensor (TES) bolometers instrumented with a frequency-domain multiplexed readout system. The bolometers are cooled to 280 mK via a three-stage helium sorption refrigerator and a mechanical pulse-tube cooler. Three warm mirrors, two 4 K lenses, and a horn array couple the TES bolometers to the telescope. APEX-SZ observes in a single frequency band at 150 GHz with 1' angular resolution and a 22' field-of-view, all well suited for cluster mapping. The APEX-SZ receiver has played a key role in the introduction of several new technologies including TES bolometers, the frequency-domain multiplexed readout, and the use of a pulse-tube cooler with bolometers. As a result of these new technologies, the instrument has a higher instantaneous sensitivity and covers a larger field-of-view than earlier generations of Sunyaev-Zel'dovich instruments. The TES bolometers have a median sensitivity of 890 uKcmb-sqrt(s) (NEy of 3.5e-4 sqrt(s)). We have also demonstrated upgraded detectors with improved sensitivity of 530 uKcmb-sqrt(s) (NEy of 2.2e-4 sqrt(s)). Since its commissioning in April 2007, APEX-SZ has been used to map 48 clusters. We describe the design of the receiver and its performance when installed on the APEX telescope.

The article by Zhang et al. (2008, A&A, 482, 451) contains an error in Table A.1 in online material (p. 3). In preparing the final version of Table A.1, we inadvertently used the wrong conversion from degree to hh:mm:ss, with the result that the cluster coordinates were not correctly tabulated in Table A.1. We note that this does not affect any results in Zhang et al. (2008). Nevertheless, we regret this error and provide the actual cluster coordinates used in our analysis in Table A.1 in the following page.