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arXiv · astro-ph/0205291

A Correlation between Light Concentration and Cluster Local Density for Elliptical Galaxies

Abstract

Using photometric and redshift data for the Virgo and Coma clusters, we present evidence for a correlation between the light concentration of elliptical galaxies (including dwarf ellipticals) and the local 3-D (i.e. non-projected) density of the clusters: more concentrated ellipticals are located in denser regions. The null hypothesis (i.e. the absence of any relation) is rejected at a significance level better than 99.9%. In order to explain the observed relation, a power law relating the galaxy light concentration and the cluster 3-D density is proposed. We study how the projection effects affect the form and dispersion of the data-points in the light concentration-projected density diagram. The agreement between our model and the observed data suggests that there is a paucity of dwarf elliptical galaxies in the cluster central regions.

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I. Trujillo, J. A. L. Aguerri, C. M. Gutierrez, N. Caon, J. Cepa. 2002-05-17. A Correlation between Light Concentration and Cluster Local Density for Elliptical Galaxies. https://doi.org/10.1086/341883

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