The Color-Magnitude Relation in CL 1358+62 at z=0.33: Evidence for Significant Evolution in the S0 Population

Abstract

We use a large mosaic of HST WFPC2 images to measure the colors and morphologies of 194 spectroscopically confirmed members of the rich galaxy cluster CL1358+62 at z=0.33. We study the color-magnitude (CM) relation as a function of radius in the cluster. The intrinsic scatter in the restframe B-V CM relation of the elliptical galaxies is very small: ~0.022 magnitudes. The CM relation of the ellipticals does not depend significantly on the distance from the cluster center. In contrast, the CM relation for the S0 galaxies does depend on radius: the S0s in the core follow a CM relation similar to the ellipticals, but at large radii (R>0.7Mpc) the S0s are systematically bluer and the scatter in the CM relation approximately doubles to ~0.043 magnitudes. The blueing of the S0s is significant at the 95% confidence level. These results imply that the S0 galaxies in the outer parts of the cluster have formed stars more recently than the S0s in the inner parts. A likely explanation is that clusters at z=0.33 continue to accrete galaxies and groups from the field and that infall extinguishes star formation. The apparent homogeneity of the elliptical galaxy population implies that star formation in recently accreted ellipticals was terminated well before accretion occurred. We have constructed models to explore the constraints that these observations place on the star formation history of cluster galaxies. We conclude that the population of S0s in clusters is likely to evolve as star forming galaxies are converted into passively evolving galaxies. Assuming a constant accretion rate after z=0.33, we estimate ~15% of the present day early-type galaxy population in rich clusters was accreted between z=0.33 and z=0. The ellipticals (and the brightest S0s) are probably a more stable population, at least since z=0.6.