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Results from the ROSAT Deep Cluster Survey
Author(s) -
Rosati P.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
astronomische nachrichten
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.394
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1521-3994
pISSN - 0004-6337
DOI - 10.1002/asna.2123190139
Subject(s) - rosat , physics , astrophysics , galaxy cluster , galaxy , cluster (spacecraft) , redshift , astronomy , galaxy formation and evolution , luminosity function , luminosity , universe , population , brightest cluster galaxy , galaxy groups and clusters , demography , sociology , computer science , programming language
Deep X‐ray surveys of galaxy clusters covering large solid angles offer ideal samples for studying the evolution of the large scale structure in the Universe. I review here some recent results from the ROSAT Deep Cluster Survey (RDCS), particularly, on the study of the evolution of the abundance of galaxy clusters over a large redshift range. The optical identification of RDCS sources have revealed a significant fraction of clusters at >z > 0.5. The observed X‐ray Luminosity Function out to z ⋍ 0.8 and the faint cluster number counts from the RDCS, when combined with previous results of the Einstein Extended Medium Sensitivity Survey, provide a much improved observational picture of the evolution of clusters in the X‐ray band, revealing a slowly evolving population of galaxy clusters since at least z ⋍ 0.8. The theoretical interpretation of these findings in the framework of theories of structure formation will still be subject of much debate in the years to come. The construction of large samples of clusters out to z ∽ 1 and beyond appears to be a challenging task even with the next generation of X‐ray satellites (AXAF, XMM).