MOSS III: MeerKATs view on the galaxy populations in two massive galaxy clusters
Abstract
The MeerKAT Observations of the Saraswati Supercluster (MOSS) is an ongoing project attempting to study the radio and optical properties of the core region of the Saraswati supercluster (z = 0.28) and will eventually entail a full survey of the entire supercluster region. Here we use radio catalogs from previous deep pilot MeerKAT L-band (1.28 GHz) observations (angular resolution of 8 arcsec) of the core region of the Saraswati supercluster. The region hosts two galaxy clusters representing distinct environments: The most massive cluster Abell 2631, and the second most massive cluster ZwCl2341, that is significantly more dynamically active. The deep radio catalogs of these clusters were combined with spectroscopic redshifts (mainly from DESI DR1 and SDSS DR16) and optical photometry catalogs of the cluster member galaxy source population. We use these redshifts together with the 1.4GHz MeerKAT flux densities to derive the dust-free star-formation rate (SFR) and evaluate various trends in the radio SFG and AGN galaxy populations. We find that the actively merging cluster ZwCL2341 has an increased star-forming galaxy population compared to A2631 with up to 4 times more star-forming galaxies. When looking at SFG-related radio processes we see s enhanced SF-related activity in ZwCL2341 with SF-related radio processes dominates entirely over AGN-related radio processes. This suggests that dynamically active environments associated with cluster assembly, such as mergers, have enhanced SF radio-activity and increased SFG (both radio and non-radio) galaxy population compared to lesser active systems.
Related
- Pinpointing the cosmic web between massive galaxy clusters. I. The incidence of H i and O vi as WHIM tracers
- Reconstructing the Three-Dimensional Stellar Mass Profiles of Massive Galaxy Clusters
- Pinpointing the cosmic web between massive galaxy clusters I. The incidence of HI and OVI as WHIM tracers
- Cosmic Ray Diffusion and the Origin of Very High Energy Gamma-Ray Emission in Young Massive Stellar Clusters
- Tighter dark-matter constraints from the projected mass method: A neural-network-enhanced method for galaxy groups and clusters
BibTeX
@misc{kincaid2026moss,
title = {{MOSS III: MeerKATs view on the galaxy populations in two massive galaxy clusters}},
author = {Robert Kincaid and Mark Sargent and Pascale Jablonka and Bruno Slaus and Viral Parekh and Shishir Sankhayan and Sameer Salunke and Jean-Paul Kneib},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.19079},
eprint = {2610.19079},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.19079},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - MOSS III: MeerKATs view on the galaxy populations in two massive galaxy clusters
AU - Robert Kincaid
AU - Mark Sargent
AU - Pascale Jablonka
AU - Bruno Slaus
AU - Viral Parekh
AU - Shishir Sankhayan
AU - Sameer Salunke
AU - Jean-Paul Kneib
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/13
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.19079
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.19079
AB - The MeerKAT Observations of the Saraswati Supercluster (MOSS) is an ongoing project attempting to study the radio and optical properties of the core region of the Saraswati supercluster (z = 0.28) and will eventually entail a full survey of the entire supercluster region. Here we use radio catalogs from previous deep pilot MeerKAT L-band (1.28 GHz) observations (angular resolution of 8 arcsec) of the core region of the Saraswati supercluster. The region hosts two galaxy clusters representing distinct environments: The most massive cluster Abell 2631, and the second most massive cluster ZwCl2341, that is significantly more dynamically active. The deep radio catalogs of these clusters were combined with spectroscopic redshifts (mainly from DESI DR1 and SDSS DR16) and optical photometry catalogs of the cluster member galaxy source population. We use these redshifts together with the 1.4GHz MeerKAT flux densities to derive the dust-free star-formation rate (SFR) and evaluate various trends in the radio SFG and AGN galaxy populations. We find that the actively merging cluster ZwCL2341 has an increased star-forming galaxy population compared to A2631 with up to 4 times more star-forming galaxies. When looking at SFG-related radio processes we see s enhanced SF-related activity in ZwCL2341 with SF-related radio processes dominates entirely over AGN-related radio processes. This suggests that dynamically active environments associated with cluster assembly, such as mergers, have enhanced SF radio-activity and increased SFG (both radio and non-radio) galaxy population compared to lesser active systems.
ER -