Do clusters contain a large population of dwarf galaxies?

Abstract

We analyze systematic effects in the determination of the galaxy luminosity function in clusters using a deep mock catalogue constructed from a numerical simulation of a hierarchical universe. The results indicate a strong tendency to derive a rising faint end ($α\lsim -1.5$) in clusters selected in two dimensions, using a galaxy catalogue constructed with a universal flat luminosity function with $\alpha \simeq -1.0$. This is due to the projection effects inherent in catalogues of clusters constructed using 2 dimensional data. Many of the clusters found in 2d have no significant 3d counterparts, and most suffer from massive background contamination that cannot be corrected for by subtracting random offset fields. The luminosity function of high surface brightness galaxies in the field and within small groups follows a Schechter function with a fairly flat faint end slope, $n(L)\propto L^{\alpha }$ with $\alpha =-0.9$ to -1.2. On the contrary, observational studies of clusters constructed using Abell, EDCC and APM catalogues are systematically found to have steeper luminosity functions with $\alpha =-1.4$ to -2.0. This may be attributed to projection effects rather than a dominant population of high surface brightness dwarf galaxies ($M\gsim M^*+2$) in clusters. It should be straighforward to confirm our results by measuring redshifts of these faint cluster galaxies.

23 pages, 7 Postscript figures TeX, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal, e-mail:[email protected] http://iate.oac.uncor.edu/cv.html

References in corpus (3)

• Ram Pressure Stripping of Spiral Galaxies in Clusters
• The 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey: Spectral Types and Luminosity Functions
• The Luminosity Distribution of Local Group Galaxies

Cited by in corpus (44)

• The properties and luminosity function of extremely low luminosity galaxies
• A wide field Hubble Space Telescope study of the cluster CL0024+16 at z=0.4. I: morphological distributions to 5 Mpc radius
• Environmental Dependence of Properties of Galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• The Galaxy Content of SDSS Clusters and Groups
• Galaxy Luminosity Functions from Deep Spectroscopic Samples of Rich Clusters
• Galaxy Populations and Evolution in Clusters II: Defining Cluster Populations
• Can Early Type Galaxies Evolve from Fading the Disks of Late Types?
• The dwarf Low Surface Brightness galaxy population of the Virgo Cluster I. The faint-end-slope of the Luminosity Function
• Composite Luminosity Functions Based on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey "Cut & Enhance" Galaxy Cluster Catalog
• A Photometric and Spectroscopic Study of Dwarf and Giant Galaxies in the Coma Cluster - IV. The Luminosity Function
• The Morphological Butcher-Oemler effect in the SDSS Cut&Enhance Galaxy Cluster Catalog
• The Luminosity Function of Low-Redshift Abell Galaxy Clusters
• On the luminosity function of galaxies in groups in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• Rigorous luminosity function determination in presence of a background: theory and application to two intermediate redshift clusters
• V and R-band Galaxy Luminosity Functions and Low Surface Brightness Galaxies in the Century Survey
• The Luminosity Functions of the Galaxy Cluster MS1054-0321 at z=0.83 based on ACS Photometry
• Infrared Luminosity Function of the Coma Cluster
• Properties of satellite galaxies in the SDSS photometric survey: luminosities, colours and projected number density profiles
• Galaxy Morphological Segregation in Clusters: Local vs. Global Conditions
• Critical analysis of the luminosity functions per galaxy type measured from redshift surveys
• The Color Bimodality in Galaxy Clusters since z = 0.9
• A search for low surface brightness dwarf galaxies in different environments
• A Sample of Field Ellipticals
• The galaxy luminosity function of the Abell 496 cluster and its spatial variations
• Uncovering the Near-IR Dwarf Galaxy Population of the Coma Cluster with Spitzer IRAC
• Deprojecting Densities from Angular Cross-Correlations
• The Luminosity Function of the NoSOCS Galaxy Cluster Sample
• Luminosity segregation in three clusters of galaxies (A119, 2443, 2218)
• The Morphological decomposition of Abell A868
• The luminosity function of galaxies to $M_{BgVriz}\sim -14$ in $z\sim 0.3$ clusters
• The faint-end of the galaxy luminosity function in groups
• The nature of the dwarf population in Abell 868
• The Global, Local and Cluster Galaxy Luminosity Function
• The z=0 Galaxy Luminosity Function: I. Techniques for Identification of Dwarf Galaxies at ~10 Mpc
• The Pan-STARRS1 Medium-deep Survey: Star Formation Quenching in Group and Cluster Environments
• Faint galaxy population in clusters: X-ray emission, cD halos and projection effects
• Introducing the Photometric Maximum Likelihood Method: Galaxy Luminosity Functions at z<1.2 in MUSYC-ECDFS
• The Luminosity Function of Nearby Galaxy Clusters II: Redshifts and Luminosity Function for Galaxies in the Region of the Centaurus Cluster
• The U-band Galaxy Luminosity Function of Nearby Clusters
• The FSVS Cluster Catalogue: Galaxy Clusters and Groups in the Faint Sky Variability Survey
• Deprojection of luminosity functions of galaxies in the Coma cluster
• The Galaxy Population of Cl1601+42 at z=0.54
• The Circular Velocity Function of Group Galaxies
• On the accuracy of the high redshift cluster luminosity function