Cosmology with Galaxy Clusters through the Sunyaev-Zel’dovich Effect

Abstract

Future Sunyaev-Zel’dovich effect (SZE) surveys will detect thousands of clusters, many of them at high redshift. We show how the SZE number counts as a function of flux can be used as a useful way of constraining the cosmological model. The constraints can be dramatically improved if redshift information is provided for a small subsample of the observed clusters. In this work we present the constraints on Ω _m and σ ₈ expected for a combined mm-optical survey. The mm survey (Planck) providing the cluster number counts as a function of flux and the optical survey (GIG) the redshift estimation of a small subsample of the cluster catalogue. We also show how it is possible to get an accurate estimate of the cluster flux using a non-parametric component separation algorithm, and how using morphological redshifts it is possible to make a high-z preselection of the small subsample to be observed in the optical.