The Red-Sequence Cluster Surveys

Abstract

The Red-Sequence Cluster Surveys (RCS-1 and RCS-2) are large optical imaging surveys optimized to create well-characterized catalogs of clusters of galaxies up to a redshift of ~1. We describe our first cosmological analysis, using the self-calibration technique, of a cluster sample of ~1000 from the 90 sq. deg RCS-1, using optical richness as a mass proxy. We obtain values for the cosmological parameters $\Omega_m$ and $\sigma_8$ that are in excellent agreement with the year-three WMAP results. Furthermore, the derived cluster richness-mass relationship is entirely consistent with those measured directly using dynamical mass measurements.