Merger Induced Kinematic Anomalies in Abell 119

  • Published : 2016.04.12

Abstract

Galaxy clusters are the sites where the most massive galaxies are found, and so the most dramatic merger histories are embedded. Our deep (mu ~ 28 mag/arcsec^2) images of Abell 119 at z = 0.044 using the Blanco 4-m telescope at CTIO revealed post-merger signatures in ~35% of galaxies brighter than Mr < -19.5, suggesting that so many galaxies even in clusters have gone through galaxy mergers at recent epoch. We went further to understand the impact of mergers in cluster galaxies using stellar kinematics from the SAMI Integral Field Unit on the galaxies of Abell 119 in three aspects of kinematics : orientations, levels of rotation, and kinematic shapes. We found that 30% of the merger-featured galaxies show misalignment in the angle between the photometric major and the rotation axes, and most of them show complex kinematics. For comparison, only 5% of non-merger-featured galaxies show the misalignment. Moreover, our analysis using the Tully-Fisher relation shows that galaxy interactions can both enhance or reduce galaxy spin depending on the merger geometry. We present our preliminary result and discussion on the role of galaxy mergers in cluster environment from the perspective of kinematics.

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