Bibcode
Ascaso, B.; Aguerri, J. A. L.; Varela, J.; Cava, A.; Bettoni, D.; Moles, M.; D'Onofrio, M.
Bibliographical reference
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 726, Issue 2, article id. 69 (2011).
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1
2011
Journal
Citations
51
Refereed citations
49
Description
We present results on the evolution of the structural parameters of two
samples of brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) in the last 6 Gyr. The
nearby sample of BCGs consists of 69 galaxies from the WINGS survey
spanning a redshift range of 0.04 < z < 0.07. The
intermediate-redshift (0.3 < z < 0.6) sample is formed by 20 BCGs
extracted from the Hubble Space Telescope archive. Both samples have
similar spatial resolution and their host clusters have similar X-ray
luminosities. We report an increase in the size of the BCGs from
intermediate to local redshift. However, we do not detect any variation
in the Sérsic shape parameter in both samples. These results
prove to be robust since the observed tendencies are model independent.
We also obtain significant correlations between some of the BCG
parameters and the main properties of the host clusters. More luminous,
larger, and centrally located BCGs are located in more massive and
dominant galaxy clusters. These facts indicate that the host galaxy
cluster has played an important role in the formation of their BCGs. We
discuss the possible mechanisms that can explain the observed evolution
of the structural parameters of the BCGs. We conclude that the main
mechanisms that can explain the increase in size and the non-evolution
in the Sérsic shape parameter of the BCGs in the last 6 Gyr are
feedback processes. This result disagrees with semi-analytical
simulation results supporting the idea that merging processes are the
main mechanism responsible for the evolution of the BCGs up until the
present epoch.
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