Galaxy Evolution in Clusters of Galaxies

Start year
2004
Organizational Unit

Grants related:

    General
    Description

    Galaxies in the universe can be located in different environments, some of them are isolated or in low density regions and they are usually called field galaxies. The others can be located in galaxy associations, going from loose groups to clusters or even superclusters of galaxies. One of the foremost challenges of the modern Astrophysics is to achieve a complete theory about galaxy evolution. This theory should explain the relation between the environment and galaxy evolution. Galaxy clusters are high density environments where galaxies interact one to each other and with the intracluster material (ICM). In addition, the cluster dynamics is driven by the high density and quantity of dark matter present in them. Therefore, galaxy clusters are complex systems with multiple components (galaxies, ICM, dark matter) which are tightly bounded. The mix of all these components, as well as their interactions, makes galaxy clusters ideal laboratories to study the different mechanisms which cause the different evolution of galaxies in this high density environments with respect to field galaxies.

    The objective of this project is to study the formation and evolution of galaxies in these dense environments. The ‘Galaxy Evolution in Clusters’ group intend to understand in what environment each of the mechanisms proposed by numerical simulations to transform the galaxies dominates and how the evolution of the different types of galaxies (both bright and dwarf) occurs in the clusters. Quantifying observationally the efficiency of these mechanisms is not an easy task since many of them act at the same time, they do it in very different time scales, and in diverse regions of the cluster. However, there are some observational evidences that can be directly contrasted: i) morphological and structural distribution of the galaxies of the clusters; ii) luminosity function of galaxies in clusters; iii) diffuse light (quantity and distribution); iv) presence of galactic substructures within the clusters; v) spectro-photometric properties of dwarf and bright galaxies; vi) ICM properties. All these observables provide the necessary information to understand the relationship between environment and galactic evolution. These are the quantities this project aims at measuring for large samples of galaxy clusters.

    Principal investigator
    Project staff
    1. Intrinsic Shape of Galactic Bars. We find, for the first time, that 52% (16%) of bulges are thicker (flatter) than the surrounding bar. We suggest that these percentages might be representative of the fraction of classical and disc-like bulges in our sample, respectively.
    2. The Influence of the Environment in the Star Formation Quenching. Our results indicate that in low-density environments, post-starburst galaxies are formed by gas-rich minor mergers or accretions, whereas for high-density environments PSBs would be produced by the removal of the gas reservoirs of emission line galaxies by ram-pressure stripping.
    3. Morpho-Kinematic Properties of Galactic Bulges. We find that photometric diagnostics to separate different types of bulges (disc-like versus classical) might not be useful for S0 galaxies. Using the morpho-kinematics properties of S0 bulges derived in this paper we suggest that they are mainly formed by dissipational processes happening at high redshift.

    Related publications

    • Properties of barred galaxies with the environment. I. The case of the Virgo cluster

      Context. Barred structures are widespread in a considerable fraction of galactic disks, spanning diverse environments and galaxy luminosities. The environment likely exerts a significant influence on bar formation, with tidal interactions leading to the emergence of elongated features resembling bars within galaxy disks. It is plausible that the

      Aguerri, J. Alfonso L. et al.

      Advertised on:

      11
      2023
      Citations
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    • Fossil group origins. XIII. A paradigm shift: Fossil groups as isolated structures rather than relics of the ancient Universe

      Aims: In this work we study the large-scale structure around a sample of non-fossil systems and compare the results with earlier findings for a sample of genuine fossil systems selected using their magnitude gap. Methods: We computed the distance from each system to the closest filament and intersection as obtained from a catalogue of galaxies in

      Zarattini, S. et al.

      Advertised on:

      8
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    • The SAMI-Fornax Dwarfs Survey - III. Evolution of [α/Fe] in dwarfs, from Galaxy Clusters to the Local Group

      Using very deep, high spectral resolution data from the SAMI Integral Field Spectrograph, we study the stellar population properties of a sample of dwarf galaxies in the Fornax Cluster, down to a stellar mass of 107 M⊙, which has never been done outside the Local Group. We use full spectral fitting to obtain stellar population parameters. Adding

      Romero-Gómez, J. et al.

      Advertised on:

      6
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    • The bar rotation rate as a diagnostic of dark matter content in the centre of disc galaxies

      We investigate the link between the bar rotation rate and dark matter content in barred galaxies by concentrating on the cases of the lenticular galaxies NGC 4264 and NGC 4277. These two gas-poor galaxies have similar morphologies, sizes, and luminosities. But, NGC 4264 hosts a fast bar, which extends to nearly the corotation, while the bar

      Buttitta, C. et al.

      Advertised on:

      5
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    • A newly identified galaxy group thanks to tidal streams of intragroup light

      Context. In the accretion-driven growth scenario, part of the intracluster light is formed in the group environment. Aims: We report the serendipitous discovery of a group of galaxies with signs of diffuse light in the foreground of the known galaxy cluster MACS J0329−0211 at z ∼ 0.45. Methods: Our investigation began with the detection of diffuse

      Girardi, M. et al.

      Advertised on:

      3
      2023
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    • Evolution of dark gaps in barred galaxies

      Context. Recent studies show that barred galaxies have a light deficit, called a dark gap (DG), in the direction of the bar minor axis with respect to the major axis. The properties of these DGs might be related to the properties of the bars and to the location of some resonances of the galaxies. Aims: We have analyzed the evolution of the DGs

      Aguerri, J. A. L. et al.

      Advertised on:

      2
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    • Moving groups across Galactocentric radius with Gaia DR3

      The kinematic plane of stars near the Sun has proven an indispensable tool for untangling the complexities of the structure of our Milky Way (MW). With ever improving data, numerous kinematic 'moving groups' of stars have been better characterized, and new ones continue to be discovered. Here we present an improved method for detecting these groups

      Lucchini, Scott et al.

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      2
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    • Fossil group origins. XII. The large-scale environment around fossil systems

      Aims: We analyse the large-scale structure out to 100 Mpc around a sample of 16 confirmed fossil systems using spectroscopic information from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 16. Methods: We computed the distance between our fossil groups (FGs) and the centres of filaments and nodes from the literature. We also studied the density of

      Zarattini, S. et al.

      Advertised on:

      12
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    • Forecasting the success of the WEAVE Wide-Field Cluster Survey on the extraction of the cosmic web filaments around galaxy clusters

      Next-generation wide-field spectroscopic surveys will observe the infall regions around large numbers of galaxy clusters with high sampling rates for the first time. Here, we assess the feasibility of extracting the large-scale cosmic web around clusters using forthcoming observations, given realistic observational constraints. We use a sample of

      Cornwell, Daniel J. et al.

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      12
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    • A slow lopsided bar in the interacting dwarf galaxy IC 3167

      We present surface photometry and stellar kinematics of IC 3167, a dwarf galaxy hosting a lopsided weak bar and infalling into the Virgo cluster. We measured the bar radius and strength from broad-band imaging and bar pattern speed by applying the Tremaine-Weinberg method to stellar-absorption integral-field spectroscopy. We derived the ratio of

      Cuomo, V. et al.

      Advertised on:

      10
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      Citations
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    • A slow bar in the lenticular barred galaxy NGC 4277

      Aims: We characterised the properties of the bar hosted in lenticular galaxy NGC 4277, which is located behind the Virgo cluster. Methods: We measured the bar length and strength from the surface photometry obtained from the broad-band imaging of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and we derived the bar pattern speed from the stellar kinematics obtained

      Buttitta, C. et al.

      Advertised on:

      8
      2022
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    • The luminosity of cluster galaxies in the Cluster-EAGLE simulations

      We computed the luminosity of simulated galaxies of the C-EAGLE project, a suite of 30 high-resolution zoom-in simulations of galaxy clusters based on the EAGLE simulation. The AB magnitudes are derived for different spectral bands, from ultraviolet to infrared, using the simple stellar population modelling based on the E-MILES stellar spectra

      Negri, Andrea et al.

      Advertised on:

      9
      2022
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      3
    • Photometric Signature of Ultraharmonic Resonances in Barred Galaxies

      Bars may induce morphological features, such as rings, through their resonances. Previous studies suggested that the presence of "dark gaps," or regions of a galaxy where the difference between the surface brightness along the bar major axis and that along the bar minor axis is maximal, can be attributed to the location of bar corotation. Here

      Krishnarao, Dhanesh et al.

      Advertised on:

      4
      2022
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    • Fossil group origins. XI. The dependence of galaxy orbits on the magnitude gap

      Aims: We aim to study how the orbits of galaxies in clusters depend on the prominence of the corresponding central galaxies. Methods: We divided our data set of ∼100 clusters and groups into four samples based on their magnitude gap between the two brightest members, Δm12. We then stacked all the systems in each sample in order to create four

      Zarattini, S. et al.

      Advertised on:

      11
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    • The dwarf galaxy population in nearby clusters from the KIWICS survey

      We analyse a sample of 12 galaxy clusters, from the Kapteyn IAC WEAVE INT Cluster Survey (KIWICS) looking for dwarf galaxy candidates. By using photometric data in the r and g bands from the Wide Field Camera (WFC) at the 2.5-m Isaac Newton Telescope (INT), we select a sample of bright dwarf galaxies (M$_r\, \le$ -15.5 mag) in each cluster and

      Choque-Challapa, Nelvy et al.

      Advertised on:

      11
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    • A Duality in the Origin of Bulges and Spheroidal Galaxies

      Studying the resolved stellar populations of the different structural components that build massive galaxies directly unveils their assembly history. We aim at characterizing the stellar population properties of a representative sample of bulges and pure spheroids in massive galaxies (M⋆ > 1010 M⊙) in the GOODS-N field. We take advantage of the

      Costantin, Luca et al.

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      6
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    • Bar pattern speeds in CALIFA galaxies. III. Solving the puzzle of ultrafast bars

      Context. More than 10% of barred galaxies with a direct measurement of the bar pattern speed host an ultrafast bar. These bars extend well beyond the corotation radius and challenge our understanding of the orbital structure of barred galaxies. Most of the bars are found in spiral galaxies, rather than in lenticular galaxies. Aims: We analyse the

      Cuomo, Virginia et al.

      Advertised on:

      5
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    • The origin of bulges and discs in the CALIFA survey - I. Morphological evolution

      This series of papers aims at understanding the formation and evolution of non-barred disc galaxies. We use the new spectro-photometric decomposition code, C2D, to separate the spectral information of bulges and discs of a statistically representative sample of galaxies from the CALIFA survey. Then, we study their stellar population properties

      Méndez-Abreu, J. et al.

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    • The VANDELS ESO public spectroscopic survey. Final data release of 2087 spectra and spectroscopic measurements

      VANDELS is an ESO Public Spectroscopic Survey designed to build a sample of high-signal-to-noise ratio, medium-resolution spectra of galaxies at redshifts between 1 and 6.5. Here we present the final Public Data Release of the VANDELS Survey, comprising 2087 redshift measurements. We provide a detailed description of sample selection, observations

      Garilli, B. et al.

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