2001/08/08 by Dennis Zaritsky, Amy E. Nelson, Zaritsky, Dennis +7
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Accretion (finance) #Astronomical Observations and Instrumentation #Astronomy #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #Brightest cluster galaxy #Cluster (spacecraft) #Elliptical galaxy #FOS: Physical sciences #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Galaxy cluster #Galaxy formation and evolution #Luminosity #Physics #Redshift #Sky #Star formation #Stellar mass #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/0108152
8 pages. to appear in the proceedings of the Sesto 2001 conference on galaxy clusters
arxiv created 2001/08/08 · openalex publication_date 2001/08/08 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We present our study of the evolution of brightest cluster galaxies based on data from the Las Campanas Distant Cluster Survey (Gonzalez et al. 2001) and HST optical and IR imaging. We briefly discuss the technique that enabled us to use short (~ 3 min) exposures and a small (1m) telescope to efficiently survey about 130 sq. deg. of sky for high-z galaxy clusters. Follow-up imaging is used to construct a sample of several tens of BCGs at 0.3 < z < 0.9 with which to explore their evolution. In particular, we examine the luminosity and color evolution of these galaxies. We confirm the previous results that 1) BCGs in different environments evolve differently (eg. Burke et al 2000), 2) BCGs, particularly those in low-mass clusters, must be accreting significantly since z ~ 1 (Aragon-Salamanca et al. 1998). From measurments of the colors vs. redshift, we conclude that this accretion must consist of old stellar populations. Using HST NICMOS and WFPC2 images, we find preliminary evidence for evolution in the sizes of BCGs that is consistent with the accretion model presented in standard hierarchical models (Aragon-Salamanca et al. 1998), but puzzling differences between NICMOS and WFPC2 scale lengths precludes a definitive conclusion.