Wide-Field Optical Spectroscopy of Abell 133: A Search for Filaments Reported in X-ray Observations

Abstract: Filaments of the cosmic web have long been associated with the threadlike structures seen in galaxy redshift surveys. However, despite their baryon content being dominated by hot gas, these filaments have been an elusive target for X-ray observations. Recently, detections of filaments in very deep (2.4 Msec) observations with Chandra were reported around Abell 133 (z=0.0559). To verify these claims, we conducted a multi-object spectrographic campaign on the Baade 6.5m telescope around Abell 133; this resulted in a catalog of ${\sim}3000$ new redshift measurements, of which 254 are of galaxies near the cluster. We investigate the kinematic state of Abell 133 and identify the physical locations of filamentary structure in the galaxy distribution. Contrary to previous studies, we see no evidence that Abell 133 is dynamically disturbed; we reject the hypothesis that there is a kinematically distinct subgroup (p=0.28) and find no velocity offset between the central galaxy and the cluster ($\textrm{Z}\textrm{score}=0.041^{+0.111}{-0.106}$). The spatial distribution of galaxies traces the X-ray filaments, as confirmed by angular cross correlation with a significance of ${\sim}5\sigma$. A similar agreement is found in the angular density distribution, where two X-ray structures have corresponding galaxy enhancements. We also identify filaments in the large-scale structure of galaxies; these filaments approach the cluster from the direction the X-ray structures are seen. While more members between $\textrm{R}{200}$ and $2\times\textrm{R}{200}$ are required to clarify which large scale filaments connect to the X-ray gas, we argue that this is compelling evidence that the X-ray emission is indeed associated with cosmic filaments.