Possible Ongoing Merger Discovered by Photometry and Spectroscopy in the Field of the Galaxy Cluster PLCK G165.7+67.0

We present a detailed study of the Planck-selected binary galaxy cluster PLCK G165.7+67.0 (G165; z = 0.348). A multiband photometric catalog is generated incorporating new imaging from the Large Binocular Telescope/Large Binocular Camera and Spitzer/IRAC to existing imaging. To cope with the different image characteristics, robust methods are applied in the extraction of the matched-aperture photometry. Photometric redshifts are estimated for 143 galaxies in the 4 arcmin2 field of overlap covered by these data. We confirm that strong-lensing effects yield 30 images of 11 background galaxies, of which we contribute new photometric redshift estimates for three image multiplicities. These constraints enable the construction of a revised lens model with a total mass of M600 kpc = (2.36 ± 0.23) × 1014 M⊙. In parallel, new spectroscopy using MMT/Binospec and archival data contributes thirteen galaxies that meet our velocity and transverse radius criteria for cluster membership. The two cluster components have a pair-wise velocity of ≲100 km s−1, favoring an orientation in the plane of the sky with a transverse velocity of 100–1700 km s−1. At the same time, the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG) is offset in velocity from the systemic mean value, suggesting dynamical disturbance. New LOFAR and Very Large Array data uncover head-tail radio galaxies in the BCG and a large red galaxy in the northeast component. From the orientation and alignment of the four radio trails, we infer that the two cluster components have already traversed each other, and are now exiting the cluster.
M.P. was funded through the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship grant No. DGE 1752814, and acknowledges the support of System76 for providing computer equipment. B.L.F. gratefully acknowledges the hospitality of the Institute for Advanced Study and financial support of the Ambrose Monell Foundation and the Bershadsky Fund during much of this work. L.D. acknowledges the research grant support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (award number FG-2021-16495). R.A.W. was funded by NASA JWST Interdisciplinary Scientist grants NAG5-12460, NNX14AN10G, and 80GNSSC18K0200 from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. N.F. and A.M.B. were both funded by a UA/NASA Space Grant for Undergraduate Research. A.Z. acknowledges support by grant No. 2020750 from the United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF) and grant No. 2109066 from the United States National Science Foundation (NSF), and by the Ministry of Science & Technology, Israel. J.D. acknowledges the support of project PGC2018-101814-B-100 (MCIU/AEI/MINECO/FEDER, UE) Ministerio de Ciencia, Investigación y Universidades. This project was funded by the Agencia Estatal de Investigación, Unidad de Excelencia María de Maeztu, ref. MDM-2017-0765. This work makes use of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, which is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.