Joint Analysis of Cluster Observations: I. Mass Profile of Abell 478 from Combined X-ray, Sunyaev-zel’dovich, and Weak Lensing Data

We provide a new framework for the joint analysis of cluster observations (JACO) using simultaneous fits to X-ray, Sunyaev-Zel’dovich (SZ), and weak lensing data. Our method fits the mass models simultaneously to all data, provides explicit separation of the gaseous, dark, and stellar components, and—for the first time—allows joint constraints on all measurable physical parameters. JACO includes additional improvements to previous X-ray techniques, such as the treatment of the cluster termination shock and explicit inclusion of the BCG’s stellar mass profile. An application of JACO to the rich galaxy cluster Abell 478 shows excellent agreement among the X-ray, lensing, and SZ data. We find that Abell 478 is consistent with a cuspy dark matter profile with inner slope n = 1. Accounting for the stellar mass profile of the BCG allows us to rule out inner dark matter slopes n > 1.1 at the 99% confidence level. At large radii, an r asymptotic slope is preferred over an r behavior. All single power law dark matter models are ruled out at greater than the 99% confidence level. JACO shows that self-consistent modeling of multiwavelength data can provide powerful constraints on the shape of the dark profile. Subject headings: Dark matter—X-rays: galaxies: clusters—gravitational lensing—galaxies: clusters: individual (Abell 478)