Masses of high-redshift clusters via SZ effect observations

We present Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect (SZE) observations of distant, highly X-ray luminous clusters of galaxies. We use the SZE data to constrain their total masses, independent of X-ray observations. To do this, we assume the clusters have the same gas mass fraction as that derived from SZE measurements of a sample of known massive clusters, and then infer each cluster's mass from its SZE data. In the systems with published X-ray temperatures, we find good agreement between our SZE-derived temperatures and those inferred from X-ray spectroscopy; in the system without X-ray derived temperatures, the SZE data provide the first confirmation that it is indeed a massive system. The abundance of clusters at high redshift is critically sensitive to the values of the cosmological parameters and so the demonstrated ability to determine cluster temperatures and masses from SZE observations independent of X-ray data illustrates the power of using deep SZE surveys to probe the distant universe.