Toward Solving the Puzzle: Dissecting the Complex Merger A521 with Multiwavelength Data

A521 has been a subject of extensive panchromatic studies from X-ray to radio. The cluster possesses a number of remarkable features, including a bright radio relic with a steep spectrum, more than three distinct galaxy groups forming a filament, and two disturbed X-ray peaks at odds with the distant position and tilted orientation of the radio relic. These lines of evidence indicate a complex merger. In this paper, we present a multiwavelength study of A521 based on Subaru optical, Hubble Space Telescope infrared, Chandra X-ray, Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope radio, and Multiple Mirror Telescope optical spectroscopic observations. Our weak-lensing (WL) analysis with improved systematics control reveals that A521 is mainly composed of three substructures aligned in the northwest to southeast orientation. These WL mass substructures are remarkably well-aligned with the cluster optical luminosity distribution constructed from our new enhanced cluster member catalog. These individual substructure masses are determined by simultaneously fitting three Navarro-Frenk-White profiles. We find that the total mass of A521 modeled by the superposition of the three halos is 13.0-1.3+1.0× 1014M⊙, a factor of 2 higher than the previous WL measurement. With these WL mass constraints combined with X-ray and radio features, we consider two merging scenarios, carry out the corresponding numerical simulations, and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each case.