A simple empirically motivated template for the thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect

We develop a model for the power spectrum of unresolved clusters of galaxies arising from the thermal SunyaevZeldovich (tSZ) effect. The model is based on a universal gas pressure profile constrained by X-ray observations and includes a parameter to describe departures from self-similar evolution. The model is consistent with recent Planck observations of the tSZ effect for X-ray clusters with redshifts z? 1 and reproduces the low amplitude for the tSZ inferred from recent ground-based observations. By adjusting two free parameters, we are able to reproduce the tSZ power spectra from recent numerical simulations to an accuracy that is well within theoretical uncertainties. Our model provides a simple, empirically motivated tSZ template that may be useful for the analysis of new experiments such as Planck.