Constraining the galaxy mass content in the core of A383 using velocity dispersion measurements for individual cluster members

We use velocity dispersion measurements of 21 individual cluster members in the core of Abell 383, obtained with Multiple Mirror Telescope Hectospec, to separate the galaxy and the smooth dark halo (DH) lensing contributions. While lensing usually constrains the overall, projected mass density, the innovative use of velocity dispersion measurements as a proxy for masses of individual cluster members breaks inherent degeneracies and allows us to (a) refine the constraints on single galaxy masses and on the galaxy mass-to-light scaling relation and, as a result, (b) refine the constraints on the DM-only map, a high-end goal of lens modelling. The knowledge of cluster member velocity dispersions improves the fit by 17 per cent in terms of the image reproduction χ^2, or 20 per cent in terms of the rms. The constraints on the mass parameters improve by ∼10 per cent for the DH, while for the galaxy component, they are refined correspondingly by ∼50 per cent, including the galaxy halo truncation radius. For an L^* galaxy with M^∗_B=−20.96, for example, we obtain best-fitting truncation radius r^∗_(tr)=20.5^(+9.6)_(−6.7) kpc and velocity dispersion σ_* = 324 ± 17 km s^(−1). Moreover, by performing the surface brightness reconstruction of the southern giant arc, we improve the constraints on r_(tr) of two nearby cluster members, which have measured velocity dispersions, by more than ∼30 per cent. We estimate the stripped mass for these two galaxies, getting results that are consistent with numerical simulations. In the future, we plan to apply this analysis to other galaxy clusters for which velocity dispersions of member galaxies are available.