Mathematics – Logic
Scientific paper
May 1993
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1993aas...182.3014m&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, 182nd AAS Meeting, #30.14; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 25, p.838
Mathematics
Logic
1
Scientific paper
We have done high resolution CCD imaging of GHO 0020+0407, a cluster of galaxies at z = 0.698. The image, taken with the High Resolution Camera (HRCam) on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, has a FWHM = 0.42 arcsec and a limiting magnitude of R ~ 26. The image shows a dramatic incidence of close pairs/triplets of galaxies, with separations of 1 - 1.5 arcsec. We evaluate the significance of these close pairs using both the angular two-point correlation function (w(theta )), and the distribution of nearest neighbors. We find that the number of close pairs is enhanced by a factor of ~ three above that expected for a random distribution and is significant at the 99% confidence level. The luminosities of a few of the pairs are similar, with the brightest members being about L(*) . At this redshift the physical separations of these pairs is typically 6 - 12 kpc, depending on the assumed cosmological model. Given that models of interacting systems with similar separations invariably merge on timescales of < 1 Gyr, we interpret this enhancement of close pairs as strong evidence for mergers occurring in this cluster. We find a similar effect occurring at the present epoch in the Hercules Cluster which is morphologically similar to GHO 0020+0407. We conclude, therefore, that interactions and mergers in rich clusters are not primarily an effect of look-back time, but rather, they are related to the dynamical evolutionary state of the cluster at the particular epoch of observation.
Lavery Russell J.
McClure Robert D.
Pierce Michael J.
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