Abstract
We have performed a series ofN-body experiments including the effects of a massive dominant background which follows Schuster's density law in order to simulate clusters of galaxies in which a smoothly distributed dark component is present. The existence of this background is inferred from the weak luminosity segregation observed in clusters which, however, show several characteristics of well-relaxed systems. The comparison of the velocity dispersion profiles of three clusters of galaxies (Coma, Perseus, and Virgo) with those obtained in the numerical experiments allows us to place some constraints on both the distribution and amount of distributed dark material in these clusters. The profiles are rather insensitive to variations in the ratio of the background mass to the mass attached to galaxies (M b/Mg), but exhibit a strong dependence on their relative concentration. We conclude that highly concentrated background models are not consistent with observations. We find a maximum value for the ratio of the gravitational radius of the galaxies and the background (R g/Rb) (approximately 0.6) and using previous results (Navarroet al., 1986) we conclude that virial theorem masses underestimate the total mass (M b+M g) of the clusters. As a final result, we derive a minimum value for theM b/Mg ratio. All these conclusions could apply in general if Coma, Perseus, and Virgo constitute a fair sample of the rich clusters of galaxies in the Universe.
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Navarro, J.F., Lambas, D.G. Dark matter influence on velocity dispersion profiles of clusters of galaxies. Astrophys Space Sci 133, 241–252 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00642484
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00642484