1998/04/01 by Neil Trentham, Trentham, Neil
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/9804013
10 pages, 3 figs, latex, review paper to appear in the proceedings of ``Dwarf Galaxies and Cosmology'' ed. T.X.Thuan et al. (Editions Frontieres, Gif-sur-Yvette)
arxiv created 1998/04/01 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01
I review recent measurements of the faint end of the galaxy luminosity function in galaxy clusters. Evidence is presented that the luminosity function of galaxies in the central parts of clusters is remarkably constant between clusters and that this luminosity function is steep at bright and faint magnitudes and shallow in-between. The curvature is highly significant -- neither a power-law nor a Schechter function is consistent with the data. At no magnitude does alpha=-1 fit the data well. The faintest galaxies in all clusters that have been studied are dwarf spheroidal galaxies.