Photometric Pixel-Analysis of the BCGs in Abell 1139 and Abell 2589

  • Lee, Joon Hyeop (Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute) ;
  • Oh, Sree (Department of Astronomy and Yonsei University Observatory, Yonsei University) ;
  • Jeong, Hyunjin (Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute) ;
  • Yi, Sukyoung K. (Department of Astronomy and Yonsei University Observatory, Yonsei University) ;
  • Kyeong, Jaemann (Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute) ;
  • Park, Byeong-Gon (Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute)
  • Published : 2016.10.12

Abstract

To understand the coevolution of Brightest Cluster Galaxies (BCGs) and their host clusters, we conduct a case study on the BCGs in dynamically young and old clusters, Abell 1139 (A1139) and Abell 2589 (A2589). We analyze the pixel color-magnitude diagrams (pCMDs) using deep g- and r-band images, obtained from the CFHT observations. (1) While the overall shapes of the pCMDs are similar to those of typical early-type galaxies, the A2589-BCG tends to have redder mean pixel color and smaller pixel color deviation at given surface brightness than the A1139-BCG. (2) The mean pixel color distribution as a function of pixel surface brightness indicates that the A2589-BCG formed a larger central body by major dry mergers at an early epoch than the A1139-BCG, while they have grown commonly by subsequent minor mergers. (3) The spatial distributions of the pixels with deviated colors reveal that the A1139-BCG experienced considerable tidal events more recently than the A2589-BCG, whereas the A2589-BCG has an asymmetric compact core possibly resulting from major dry merger at an early epoch. (4) The A2589-BCG shows a very large faint-to-bright pixel number ratio compared to early-type non-BCGs, whereas the ratio for the A1139-BCG is not distinctively large. These results imply that the BCG in the dynamically older cluster (A2589) formed earlier and is relaxed better.

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