Structural Analysis of Brightest Cluster Galaxies in Poor and Rich Clusters

Abstract

Studying structural parameters of brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) provides important clues to understand their formation and evolution. We present the results of the surface brightness profile fitting of 1685 brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) drawn from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey in the redshift range of $0.1<z<1.0$. We fit $r$-band images of BCGs with a single Sérsic profile. The sample is splitted into two groups based on the host cluster richness to investigate the impact of the environment. Our results suggest that BCGs in rich clusters are statistically larger than their counterparts in poor clusters. We provide best-fit linear regressions for the Kormendy, the $log{R}_e-logn$, and the size-luminosity relations. In addition, we examined the evolution of the structural parameters, however the BCGs in our sample do not show a significant size change since z$\sim$1.

13 pages, 11 figures, 6 tables, accepted for publication in New Astronomy

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