The Cluster Evolutionary Reference Ensemble at Low- <i>z</i> (CEREAL) Sample of Galaxy Clusters. I. X-Ray Morphological Properties and Demographics

Abstract With rapid improvements in the assembly of large samples of galaxy clusters, we are approaching the ability to study clusters at z ≳ 2. Evolutionary studies comparing these distant clusters to the clusters in our local Universe depend heavily on the reliability of low-redshift cluster samples, most of which are subject to X-ray selection effects, biasing them to relaxed, cool-core clusters. Here, we introduce the Cluster Evolutionary Reference Ensemble at Low- z (CEREAL) sample, composed of Chandra X-ray observations of 169 galaxy clusters that have been selected from the Planck Sunyaev–Zel’dovich catalog. CEREAL has a simple and well-understood selection function, spans an order of magnitude in mass at z ∼ 0.15, and has uniform, high-resolution X-ray follow-up. We present the full sample and provide results based on X-ray surface brightness properties, finding significantly more non-cool-core systems than in X-ray-selected samples. We use surface brightness concentration ( c SB ) as a proxy for cool-core strength and centroid shift ( w ) to measure dynamical state. Over the full sample, we find a cool-core ( c SB &gt; 0.075) fraction of <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mn>0.3</mml:mn> <mml:msubsup> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>9</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>−</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0.04</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>+</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0.04</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msubsup> </mml:math> , a strong cool-core ( c SB &gt; 0.155) fraction of <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mn>0.1</mml:mn> <mml:msubsup> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>3</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>−</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0.03</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>+</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0.03</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msubsup> </mml:math> , and a dynamically relaxed ( w &lt; 0.01) fraction of <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mn>0.4</mml:mn> <mml:msubsup> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>−</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0.04</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>+</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0.04</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msubsup> </mml:math> . We find no mass dependence in the fraction of clusters that appear relaxed or have cool cores. We quantify the rarity of X-ray-bright central point sources ( L nuc, 2−10 keV &gt; 10 43 erg s −1 ), finding them to be intrinsically rare ( <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mn>0</mml:mn> <mml:mo>.</mml:mo> <mml:msubsup> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>7</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>−</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0.5</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>+</mml:mo> <mml:mn>1.2</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msubsup> </mml:math> % of massive, low- z clusters) with a notable increase in occurrence rate at the centers of cool cores.