Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
May 2007
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007aas...20911408e&link_type=abstract
2007 AAS/AAPT Joint Meeting, American Astronomical Society Meeting 209, #114.08; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society,
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
We compare the optical emission line properties of Brightest Cluster Galaxies (BCGs) selected from two large, homogeneous datasets. The first is the X-ray selected National Optical Astronomy Observatory Fundamental Plane Survey (NFPS), and the second is the C4 catalogue of optically selected clusters built from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 3 (SDSS DR3).
Our goal is to better understand the optical line emission in BCGs with respect to properties of the galaxy and the host cluster. Throughout the analysis we compare the line emission of the BCGs to that of a control sample made of the other bright galaxies near the cluster center. Both the NFPS and SDSS show a modest fraction of BCGs with emission lines. No trend in the fraction of emitting BCGs as a function of galaxy mass or cluster velocity dispersion is found. However, using the NFPS sample we find the global fraction of BCG emitters for the cooling flow case is 45 %. Excluding the cooling flow clusters there are only 10% which are line emitting, which is the same fraction as the NFPS controls, the SDSS BCGs, and the SDSS controls. We show that the emission line activity in these BCGs is not solely representative of optically selected active galactic nuclei (AGNs).
We conclude that emission lines in BCGs of massive clusters is particular to cooling flow clusters and is a local effect that happens only at the peak of X-ray emission.
Balogh Michael L.
Edwards Louise O.
Hudson Michael J.
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