High angular resolution observation of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect in the massive z ≈ 0.83 cluster Cl J0152-1357

X-ray observations of galaxy clusters at high redshift (z ≳ 0.5) indicate that they are more morphologically complex and less virialized than those at low redshift. We present the first subarcminute resolution synthesis observations at 18 GHz of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect for Cl J0152-1357 using the Australia Telescope Compact Array. Cl J0152-1357 is a massive cluster at redshift z = 0.83 and has a complex structure including several merging subclumps which have been studied at optical, X-ray, and radio wavelengths. Our high-resolution observations indicate a clear displacement of the maximum SZ effect from the peak of X-ray emission for the most massive subclump. This result shows that the cluster gas within the cluster substructures is not virialized in Cl J0152-1357, and we suggest that it is still recovering from a recent merger event. A similar offset of the SZ effect has recently been seen in the "bullet cluster" and in RX J1347-1145. This non-equilibrium situation implies that high-resolution observations are necessary to investigate galaxy cluster evolution and to extract cosmological constraints from a comparison of the SZ effect and X-ray signals.