1. Galaxy evolution in the environment of ABCG 209
- Author
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Haines, C. P., Mercurio, A., Merluzzi, P., La Barbera, F., Massarotti, M., Busarello, G., Girardi, M., Haines, C. P., Mercurio, A., Merluzzi, P., La Barbera, F., Massarotti, M., Busarello, G., and Girardi, M.
- Abstract
We examine the environmental effects on the photometric properties of galaxies for the rich galaxy cluster ABCG 209 at $z=0.209$. We use archive CFHT optical imaging of a $42\times28\,{\rm arcmin}^{2}$field centred on the cluster to produce a galaxy sample complete to $B=25.0$and $R=24.5$. Both the composite and red sequence galaxy luminosity functions are found to be dependent on the local galaxy surface density, their faint-end slopes becoming shallower with increasing density. We explain this as a combination of the morphology-density relation, and dwarf galaxies being cannibalised and/or disrupted by the cD galaxy and the ICM in the cluster core. The $B-R$colour of the red sequence itself appears 0.02 mag redder for the highest-density regions, indicative of their stellar populations being marginally (<5%) older or (<20%) more metal-rich. This may be due to the galaxies themselves forming earliest in the rarest overdensities marked by rich clusters, or their star-formation being suppressed earliest by the ICM.
- Published
- 2004
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