Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Jan 2012
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2012aas...21932905h&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #219, #329.05
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
Fossil galaxies are massive elliptical galaxies that dominate the optical light of the group or cluster in which they reside. Originally viewed as the end product of galaxy merging, they were thought to contain information on the entire merger history of the group/cluster. Recent work has questioned this interpretation and suggested that they merely represent a transient phase in normal group/cluster evolution. This talk presents the results of a study of the stellar mass assembly and stellar populations of a sample of 15 fossil galaxies at z < 0.25. We find that fossil galaxies, at a fixed group/cluster mass, are the most massive cluster galaxies being, on average, twice as massive as brightest cluster galaxies. Despite having stellar populations that are indistinguishable from those of fossil galaxies, our results eliminate normal brightest cluster galaxies at low or high redshift as their likely progenitors. Fossil galaxies are found to contain a significant fraction of the the total optical luminosity of the group/cluster, as much as 75%, compared to the brightest cluster galaxies, which can have as little as 10%. Our results suggest that fossil galaxies form via efficient mergers in early forming systems and that they truly represent the end products of galaxy mergers in groups and clusters.
Capozzi Diego
Collins Cami
Harrison Craig
Hilton Matt
Hoyle Ben
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