Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2008-02-15
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
15 pages; 13 figures; accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal
Scientific paper
10.1086/529402
We investigate the star-formation properties of dynamically relaxed galaxy clusters as a function of cluster mass for 308 low-redshift clusters drawn from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) C4 cluster catalog. It is important to establish if cluster star-formation properties have a mass dependence before comparing clusters at different epochs, and here we use cluster velocity dispersion as a measure of cluster mass. We find that the total stellar mass, the number of star-forming galaxies, and total star-formation rate scale linearly with the number of member galaxies, with no residual dependence on cluster velocity dispersion. With the mass-dependence of cluster star-formation rates established, we compare the SDSS clusters with a sample of z = 0.75 clusters from the literature and find that on average the total H-alpha luminosity of the high-redshift clusters is 10 times greater than that of the low-redshift clusters. This can be explained by a decline in the H-alpha luminosities of individual cluster galaxies by a factor of up to 10 since z = 0.75. The magnitude of this evolution is comparable to that of field galaxies over a similar redshift interval, and thus the effect of the cluster environment on the evolution of star-forming galaxies is at most modest. Our results suggest that the physical mechanism driving the evolution of cluster star-formation rates is independent of cluster mass, at least for clusters with velocity dispersion greater than 450 km/s, and operates over a fairly long timescale such that the star-formation rates of individual galaxies decline by an order of magnitude over ~7 billion years. (Abridged)
Balogh Michael L.
Finn Rose A.
Miller Christopher J.
Nichol Robert C.
Zaritsky Dennis
No associations
LandOfFree
Mass and Redshift Dependence of Star Formation in Relaxed Galaxy Clusters does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with Mass and Redshift Dependence of Star Formation in Relaxed Galaxy Clusters, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Mass and Redshift Dependence of Star Formation in Relaxed Galaxy Clusters will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-247811