A new galaxy cluster-finding algorithm

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) Legacy Survey has produced multi-band images of over a third of the sky. The DESI Legacy Survey photometry has enabled a search for galaxy clusters up to z=1 using a new algorithm optimized to exploit photometric redshifts and stellar masses. This algorithm uses a k-d tree to search for overdensities in 2-dimensional space and determines cluster membership statistically along the remaining spatial dimension in the redshift direction. The final catalog contains cluster stellar mass estimates and member galaxies for over 300,000 galaxy cluster candidates. This catalog will be made publicly available and may be used for searches for gravitationally-lensed transients and hosts of gravitational wave sources, as well as for galaxy evolution studies.