The Morphological decomposition of Abell A868

Abstract

We report on the morphological luminosity functions (LFs) and radial profiles derived for the galaxy population within the rich cluster Abell 868 (z=0.153) based purely on Hubble Space Telescope Imaging in F606W. We recover Schechter functions for early(E/S0)-, mid(Sabc)- and late(Sd/Irr)- type galaxies. The early-, mid- and late- types are all consistent with the recent field morphological LFs based on recent analysis of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey -- Early Data Release (SDSS-EDR; Nakamura et al 2003). From a detailed error analysis, including clustering of the background population, we note that improved statistics can only come from combining data from many clusters. We also examine the luminosity-density and number-density profiles as a function of morphology and draw the following conclusions: (1) The galaxies responsible for the steep faint-end slope are predominantly of late-type morphology, (2) The cluster core is dominated by elliptical galaxies, (3) The core is devoid of late-types systems, (4) The luminosity-density as a function of morphological type is skewed towards early-types when compared to the field, (5) Up to half of the elliptical galaxies may have formed from the spiral population through core disk-destruction process(es). We believe the most plausible explanation is the conventional one that late-types are destroyed during transit through the cluster core and that mid-types are converted into early-types through a similar process, which destroys the outer disk and results in a more tightly bound population of core ellipticals.[Abridged].