Weak lensing observation of potentially X-ray underluminous galaxy clusters

Optically selected clusters of galaxies display a relation between their optical mass estimates and their X-ray luminosities LX with a large scatter. A substantial fraction of optically selected clusters have LX estimates or upper limits significantly below the values expected from the LX-mass relation established for X-ray selected clusters, i.e., these clusters are Xray underluminous for their mass. Here we aim to confirm or falsify the X-ray underluminous nature of two clusters, Abell 315 and Abell 1456, with weak gravitational lensing as a third and independent measure of the clusters’ masses. We obtained optical wide-field imaging data and selected background galaxies using their colors and measured the shear exerted by the tidal field of the foreground galaxy clusters. We then fitted parametrized models to our shear catalogs. After accounting for projections of large-scale structure and halo triaxiality we find that A 315 is significantly X-ray underluminous for its mass, while no significant lensing signal could be found on A 1456. We re-evaluate earlier kinematic and X-ray analyses of these two clusters and discuss the nature of the X-ray underluminous cluster A 315 and why A 1456 was probably erroneously identified as X-ray underluminous.