Spectroscopic survey of ZwCl 0008.8+5215

The X-ray surface brightness profile reveals a merging gas-core reminiscent of the Bullet Cluster. The global X-ray luminosity in the 0.5-7.0keV band is 1.7+/-0.1x10^44^erg/s and the global X-ray temperature is 4.90+/-0.13keV. The radio relics are polarized up to 40% , and along with the masses, velocities, and positions of the two subclusters, we input these quantities into a Monte Carlo dynamical analysis and estimate the merger velocity at pericenter to be 1800_-300_^+400^km/s.

This is a lower-mass version of the Bullet Cluster and therefore may prove useful in testing alternative models of dark matter (DM). We do not find significant offsets between DM and galaxies, but the uncertainties are large with the current lensing data. Furthermore, in the east, the BCG is offset from other luminous cluster galaxies, which poses a puzzle for defining DM-galaxy offsets.