Surveying the sky with the Arcminute Microkelvin Imager: Expected constraints on galaxy cluster evolution and cosmology

We discuss prospects for cluster detection via the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect in a blank field survey with the interferometer array, the Arcminute MicroKelvin Imager (AMI). Clusters of galaxies selected in the SZ effect probe cosmology and structure formation with little observational bias, because the effect measures integrated gas pressure directly, and does so independently of cluster redshift. We use hydrodynamical simulations in combination with the Press-Schechter expression to simulate SZ cluster sky maps. These are used with simulations of the observation process to gauge the expected SZ cluster counts. Even with a very conservative choice of parameters we find that AMI will discover at least several tens of clusters every year with Mtot ≥ 1014M⊙; the numbers depend on factors such as the mean matter density, the density fluctuation power spectrum and cluster gas evolution. The AMI survey itself can distinguish between these to some degree, and parameter degeneracies are largely eliminated given optical and X-ray follow-up of these clusters; this will also permit direct investigation of cluster physics and what drives the evolution.