Investigating the Relation between Galaxy Properties and the Gaussianity of the Velocity Distribution of Groups and Clusters

Abstract

We investigate the dependence of stellar population properties of galaxies on group dynamical stage for a subsample of Yang catalog. We classify groups according to their galaxy velocity distribution into Gaussian (G) and Non-Gaussian (NG). Using two totally independent approaches we have shown that our measurement of Gaussianity is robust and reliable. Our sample covers Yang's groups in the redshift range 0.03 $\le$ z $\le$ 0.1 having mass $\ge$ 10${}^{14}{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }$. The new method, Hellinger Distance (HD), to determine whether a group has a velocity distribution Gaussian or Non-Gaussian is very effective in distinguishing between the two families. NG groups present halo masses higher than the G ones, confirming previous findings. Examining the Skewness and Kurtosis of the velocity distribution of G and NG groups, we find that faint galaxies in NG groups are mainly infalling for the first time into the groups. We show that considering only faint galaxies in the outskirts, those in NG groups are older and more metal rich than the ones in G groups. Also, examining the Projected Phase Space of cluster galaxies we see that bright and faint galactic systems in G groups are in dynamical equilibrium which does not seem to be the case in NG groups. These findings suggest that NG systems have a higher infall rate, assembling more galaxies which experienced preprocessing before entering the group.

55 pages, 5 Tables and 12 Figures. Accepted for publication in Astronomical Journal

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Cited by in corpus (4)

• Galaxy Cluster Mass Reconstruction Project: III. The impact of dynamical substructure on cluster mass estimates
• Connecting optical and X-ray tracers of galaxy cluster relaxation
• The Shape of Velocity Dispersion Profiles and the Dynamical State of Galaxy Clusters
• The Mass Density Profile and Star Formation History of Gaussian and Non-Gaussian Clusters