Toward cluster cosmology: A review of observational problems, progress and prospects
Marshall Bautz (MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics & Space Research)
I review the long-understood potential role of galaxy clusters in illuminating the large-scale structure and expansion history of the Universe, and the equally well-appreciated difficulties in realizing this potential. The spectacular progress made in our understanding of clusters since the launch of Chandra has sharpened our appreciation of these difficulties at least as much as it has resolved them. I survey some recent work by others attacking this problem, focussing on contributions by X-ray observers to our understanding of cluster mass and distance measurement, as well as to the scatter of and evolution in relations between cluster structural parameters. I briefly compare cosmological results obtained from cluster studies, on the one hand, with inferences drawn from other cosmological measurements. I try to assess the impact on cluster cosmology of some planned future surveys in the microwave, visible and X-ray bands.