Astronomy Colloquium

Clusters of galaxies form from the highest peaks in the primordial spectrum of density perturbations generated by inflation in the early universe. They are the most massive virialized structures in the universe, and as such are rare objects. The number density of galaxy clusters as a function of mass and redshift is strongly dependent on a number of cosmological parameters.

I will present results from a study of sophisticated synthetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect (SZE) galaxy cluster surveys with both large sky coverage and high angular resolution. These surveys are generated from simulations using the cosmological adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) hydro/N-body code Enzo. I will show comparisons of expected yields for various upcoming SZE cluster surveys using the Atacama Cosmology Telescope, the South Pole Telescope, Planck, and others as calculated from our synthetic surveys.

These synthetic surveys provide extremely useful guidance for the interpretation of galaxy cluster surveys. The precise
quantification of survey systematics will allow observers to both create effective survey strategies and ultimately to accurately determine cosmological parameters.