Probing hot gas around luminous red galaxies through the
  Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect
  We construct the mean thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (tSZ) Comptonization y
profile around Luminous Red Galaxies (LRGs) in the redshift range 0.16 < z <
0.47 from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 7 (DR7) using the
Planck y map. The mean central tSZ signal for the full sample is y ~ 1.8 *
10^(-7) and we detect tSZ emission out to ~30 arcmin, which is well beyond the
10 arcmin angular resolution of the y map and well beyond the virial radii of
the LRGs. We compare the measured profile with predictions from the cosmo-OWLS
suite of cosmological hydrodynamical simulations. This comparison agrees well
for models that include feedback from active galactic nuclei (AGN), but not
with hydrodynamic models without this energetic feedback mechanism. This
suggests that an additional heating mechanism is required over SNe feedback and
star formation to explain the y data profile. We also compare our results with
predictions based on the halo model with a universal pressure profile (UPP)
giving the y signal. The predicted profile is consistent with the data, but
only if we account for the clustering of haloes via a two-halo term and if halo
masses are estimated using the mean stellar-to-halo mass (SHM) relation of
Coupon et al. (2015) or Wang et al.(2016) estimated from gravitational lensing
measurements. We also discuss the importance of scatter in the SHM relation on
the model predictions.
