Cluster-lensing: A Python Package for Galaxy Clusters & Miscentering

Abstract

We describe a new open source package for calculating properties of galaxy clusters, including NFW halo profiles with and without the effects of cluster miscentering. This pure-Python package, cluster-lensing, provides well-documented and easy-to-use classes and functions for calculating cluster scaling relations, including mass-richness and mass-concentration relations from the literature, as well as the surface mass density $Σ(R)$ and differential surface mass density $ΔΣ(R)$ profiles, probed by weak lensing magnification and shear. Galaxy cluster miscentering is especially a concern for stacked weak lensing shear studies of galaxy clusters, where offsets between the assumed and the true underlying matter distribution can lead to a significant bias in the mass estimates if not accounted for. This software has been developed and released in a public GitHub repository, and is licensed under the permissive MIT license. The cluster-lensing package is archived on Zenodo (Ford 2016). Full documentation, source code, and installation instructions are available at http://jesford.github.io/cluster-lensing/.

11 pages, 3 figures. Feedback on this paper is welcome here: http://jesford.github.io/paper-on-cluster-lensing/. Software documentation, installation instructions, and source code are here: http://jesford.github.io/cluster-lensing/