paper

Flaming, bright galaxies along the filaments of A2744

arXiv:0705.0273 · doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20077257

Abstract

The existence of a clumpy, large-scale filamentary structure is at the basis of the current paradigm of cosmic formation and evolution of clusters. The star-formation history of galaxies falling into a cluster is altered as a result of the environmental stresses. We investigate the relation between substructure and properties of the galaxy population in a 30'x30' region centered on the massive merging cluster A2744 at z~0.3. Multi-object spectroscopy at low resolution and BVR photometry are used to detect the presence of substructure through a Dressler-Schectman analysis and the photometric redshift technique, respectively. Galaxies at the same photometric redshift of the cluster are divided into red and blue according to their distribution in the B-R vs. R colour-magnitude diagram. We identify two large-scale filaments associated with A2744. Along these filaments, the blue-to-red galaxy number ratio increases together with the cluster-centric distance but peaks slightly beyond the cluster virial radius. The filaments host a population of bright, large (i.e. more luminous than R* for the main body of the cluster and with angular sizes of 13-22 kpc) blue galaxies that is hardly found among galaxies lying in a neighbouring low-density environment at the same redshift of the cluster. These results can be interpreted as a manifestation of galaxy harassment.

10 pages, 6 figures; accepted for publication in A&A

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