Abstract

Galaxy clusters evolve over cosmic history from small gravitational over-densities at redshift z > 7 to become the most massive gravitationally bound objects in the universe today. The demographics of galaxies populating clusters have shifted significantly over this time, from sites of intense star formation at z ~ 2-4, to largely quiescent objects in the current epoch. An important phase of this evolution involves the development of a hot, ionized intracluster medium (ICM). Its formation around cosmic noon overlaps with the peak in star formation, which requires a multi-wavelength observational approach to fully characterize. One way to study the properties of the ICM is the Sunyaev-Zel’dovich (SZ) effect, which is a distortion in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation caused by scattering from the electrons in the hot ICM. The research presented in this thesis combines data from the Herschel Space Observatory, Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-ray Observatory, and ground based sub-mm telescopes to measure the amplitude of the SZ spectrum in the 350 and 500 micron bands of the Herschel-SPIRE instrument. I present updates to a probabilistic component separation tool used to disentangle the signals in SPIRE maps, including galaxies in and lensed by the cluster, the SZ effect, local galactic cirrus emission, and any dust components present in the cluster environment. I discuss results from SPIRE observations of the GOODS-N map to establish the pipeline’s ability to resolve sources without the presence of any SZ signal, and finally present updated results for measurements of the SZ effect in a sample of 8 galaxy clusters.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Galaxies--Clusters--Observations; Cosmic background radiation--Measurement

Publication Date

8-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Student Type

Graduate

Degree Name

Astrophysical Sciences and Technology (MS)

Department, Program, or Center

Physics and Astronomy, School of

College

College of Science

Advisor

Michael Zemcov

Advisor/Committee Member

Donald F Figer

Advisor/Committee Member

Michael Richmond

Campus

RIT – Main Campus

Plan Codes

ASTP-MS

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