  [abridged] We present a first cosmological analysis of a refined cluster
catalog from the Red-Sequence Cluster Survey (RCS). The input cluster sample is
derived from 72.07 square degrees of imaging data [...] The catalog contains
956 clusters over 0.35<z<0.95, limited by cluster richness and richness error.
The calibration of the survey images has been extensively cross-checked against
publicly available Sloan Digital Sky Survey imaging [...] We analyze the
cluster sample via a general self-calibration technique including scatter in
the mass-richness relation [...]. We fit simultaneously for Omega_M and
sigma_8, and four parameters describing the calibration of cluster richness to
mass, its evolution with redshift, and scatter in the richness-mass relation.
The principal goal of this general analysis is to establish the consistency (or
lack thereof) between the fitted parameters (both cosmological and cluster mass
observables) and available results on both from independent measures. From an
unconstrained analysis, Omega_M and sigma_8 are 0.31+0.11-0.10 and
0.67+0.18-0.13 respectively. An analysis including Gaussian priors on the slope
and zeropoint of the mass-richness relation gives very similar results:
0.30+0.12-0.11 and 0.70+0.27-0.15. Both analyses are in good agreement with the
current literature. The parameters describing the mass-richness relation in the
unconstrained fit are also eminently reasonable and agree with existing
follow-up data on both the RCS-1 and other cluster samples. Our results
directly demonstrate that future surveys (optical and otherwise), with much
larger samples of clusters, can give constraints competitive with other probes
of cosmology.
