arXiv subjects

F. Mardirossian

Publications and source records attributed to F. Mardirossian.

16 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2012

Environmental effects on the bright end of the galaxy luminosity function in galaxy clusters

The dependence of the luminosity function of cluster galaxies on the evolutionary state of the parent cluster is still an open issue, in particular as concern the formation/evolution of the brightest cluster galaxies. We plan to study the bright part of the LFs of a sample of very unrelaxed clusters ("DARC" clusters showing evidence of major, recent mergers) and compare them to a reference sample of relaxed clusters spanning a comparable mass and redshift range. Our analysis is based on the SDSS DR7 photometric data of ten, massive, and X-ray luminous clusters (0.2<z<0.3), always considering physical radii (R_200 or its fractions). We consider r' band LFs and use the color-magnitude diagrams (r'-i',r') to clean our samples as well to consider separately red and blue galaxies. We find that DARC and relaxed clusters give similar LF parameters and blue fractions. The two samples differ for their content of bright galaxies BGs, M_r<-22.5, since relaxed clusters have fewer BGs, in particular when considering the outer cluster region 0.5R_200<R<R_200 (by a factor two). However, the cumulative light in BGs is similar for relaxed and DARC samples. We conclude that BGs grow in luminosity and decrease in number as the parent clusters grow hierarchically in agreement with the BG formation by merging with other luminous galaxies.

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arXiv2003

Galaxies in group and field environments: a comparison of optical-NIR luminosities and colors

We compare properties of galaxies in loose groups with those in field environment by analyzing the Nearby Optical Galaxy (NOG) catalog of galaxy systems. We consider as group galaxies, objects belonging to systems with at least five members identified by means of the "friends of friends method", and, as field galaxies, all galaxies with no companions. We analyze both a magnitude--limited sample of 959 and 2035 galaxies (groups vs. field galaxies, respectively, B<14 mag, and 2000<cz<6000 km/s) and a volume-limited sample (M_B <-19.01 mag, 2000<cz<4000 km/s 369 group and 548 field galaxies). For all these galaxies, blue corrected magnitudes and morphological types are available. The cross-correlation of NOG with the 2MASS second release allow us to assign K magnitudes and obtain B-K colors for about half of the galaxies in our samples. We analyze luminosity and color segregation-effects in relation with the morphological segregation. For both B and K bands, we find that group galaxies are, on average, more luminous than field galaxies and this effect is not entirely a consequence of the morphological segregation. After taking into account the morphological segregation, the luminosity difference between group and field galaxies is about 10%. When considering only very early-type galaxies (T<-2) the difference is larger than 30%. We also find that group galaxies are redder than field galaxies, Delta(B-K) about 0.4 mag. However, after taking into account the morphological segregation, we find a smaller B-K difference, poorly significant (only at the c.l. of about 80%).

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arXiv2003

Morphology and luminosity segregation of galaxies in nearby loose groups

We study morphology and luminosity segregation of galaxies in loose groups. We analyze the two catalogs of groups which have been identified in the Nearby Optical Galaxy (NOG) sample, by means of hierarchical and percolation ``friends-of-friends'' methods (HG and PG catalogs, respectively). In the first part of our analysis we consider 387 and 436 groups of HG and PG, respectively, and compare morphology- (luminosity-) weighted to unweighted group properties: velocity dispersion, mean pairwise distance, and mean groupcentric distance of member galaxies. The second part of our analysis is based on two ensemble systems, one for each catalog, built by suitably combining together galaxies of all groups (1584 and 1882 galaxies for HG and PG groups, respectively). We find that earlier-type (brighter) galaxies are more clustered and lie closer to the group centers, both in position and in velocity, than later-type (fainter) galaxies. Spatial segregations are stronger than kinematical segregations. These effects are generally detected at the larger than 3-sigma level. Luminosity segregation is shown to be independent of morphology segregation. Our main conclusions are strengthened by the detection of segregation in both hierarchical and percolation catalogs. Our results agree with a continuum of segregation properties of galaxies in systems, from low-mass groups to massive clusters.

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arXiv1999

Optical Luminosities and Mass--to--Light Ratios of Nearby Galaxy Clusters

We analyze a sample of 105 clusters having virial mass homogeneously estimated and for which galaxy magnitudes are available with a well defined high degree of completeness. In particular, we consider a subsample of 89 clusters with B_j band galaxy magnitudes taken from the COSMOS/UKST Southern Sky Object Catalogue. We compute cluster luminosities L_{B_j} within several clustercentric distances and within the virialization radius R_{vir}. In particular, we use the luminosity function and background counts estimated by Lumsden et al. (1997) on the Edinburgh/Durham Southern Galaxy Catalogue. We analyze the effect of several uncertainties connected to photometric data, fore/background removal, and extrapolation below the completeness limit of the photometry, in order to assess the robustness of our cluster luminosity estimates. We draw our results on the relations between luminosity and dynamical quantities from the COSMOS sample by considering mass and luminosities determined within the virialization radius. We find a very good correlation between cluster luminosity, L_{B_j}, and galaxy velocity dispersion, sigma_v, with L_{B_j} proportional to sigma_v^{2.1--2.3}. Our estimate of typical value for the mass-to-light ratio is M/L_{B_j} about 250 (in solar units). We do not find any correlation of M/L_{B_j} with cluster morphologies, i.e. Rood--Sastry and Bautz--Morgan types, and only a weak significant correlation with cluster richness. We find that mass has a slight, but significant, tendency to increase faster than the luminosity does, M proportional to L_{B_j}^{1.2--1.3}. We verify the robustness of this relation against a number of possible systematics.

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arXiv1998

The Observational Mass Function of Nearby Galaxy Clusters

We present a new determination of the mass function of galaxy clusters, based on optical virial mass estimates for a large sample of 152 nearby (z\le0.15) Abell-ACO clusters, as provided by Girardi et al. (1998). This sample includes both data from the literature and the new ENACS data. The resulting mass function is reliably estimated for masses larger than M_{lim}\simeq 4\times 10^{14} \msun, while it is affected by sample incompleteness at smaller masses. We find N(>M_{lim})=(6.3\pm 1.2) 10^{-6} (h^{-1} Mpc)^{-3} for cluster masses estimated within a 1.5 h^{-1} radius. Our mass function is intermediate between the two previous estimates by Bahcall & Cen (1993) and by Biviano et al. (1993). Based on the Press-Schechter approach, we use this mass function to constrain the amplitude of the fluctuation power spectrum at the cluster scale. After suitably convolving the PS predictions with observational errors on cluster masses and COBE-normalizing the fluctuation power spectrum, we find sigma_8=(0.60\pm 0.04) Omega_0^{-0.46+0.09 Omega_0} for flat low-density models and sigma_8=(0.60\pm 0.04) Omega_0^{-0.48+0.17 Omega_0} for open models (at the 90% c.l.).

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arXiv1998

Optical Mass Estimates of Galaxy Clusters

We evaluate in a homogeneous way the optical masses of 170 nearby clusters (z< 0.15). The sample includes both data from the literature and the new ENACS data (Katgert et al. 1996, 1998). On the assumption that mass follows the galaxy distribution, we compute the masses of each cluster by applying the virial theorem to the member galaxies. We constrain the masses of very substructured clusters (about 10% of our clusters) between two limiting values. After appropriate rescaling to the X-ray radii, we compare our optical mass estimates to those derived from X-ray analyses, which we compiled from the literature (for 66 clusters). We find a good overall agreement. This agreement is expected in the framework of two common assumptions: that mass follows the galaxy distribution, and that clusters are not far from a situation of dynamical equilibrium with both gas and galaxies reflecting the same underlying mass distribution. We stress that our study strongly supports the reliability of present cluster mass estimates derived from X-ray analyses and/or (appropriate) optical analyses.

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arXiv1997

New Optical Insights into the Mass Discrepancy of Galaxy Clusters: The Cases of A1689 and A2218

We analyze the internal structures of clusters A1689 and A2218 by applying a recent development of the method of wavelet analysis, which uses the complete information obtained from optical data, i.e. galaxy positions and redshifts. We find that both clusters show the presence of structures superimposed along the line of sight with different mean redshifts and smaller velocity dispersions than that of the system as a whole, suggesting that the clusters could be cases of the on-going merging of clumps. In the case of A2218 we find an acceptable agreement between our estimate of optical virial mass and X-ray and gravitational lensing masses. On the contrary, in the case of A1689 we find that our mass estimates are smaller than X-ray and gravitational lensing ones at both small and large radii. In any case, at variance with earlier claims, there is no evidence that X-ray mass estimates are underestimated.

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arXiv1996

Optical Substructures in 48 Galaxy Clusters

We analyze the presence of substructures in a set of 48 galaxy clusters, by using galaxy positions and redshifts. We use a multi-scale analysis which couples kinematical estimators with the wavelet transform. 14% of our clusters are strongly substructured (i.e. they are bimodal or complex) and 24% of the remaining unimodal clusters contain substructures at small scales. Thus, in substantial agreement with previous studies, about one third of clusters show substructures. In unimodal clusters the presence of substructures does not affect the estimates of both virial masses and velocity dispersions, which are generally in good agreement with the X-ray temperatures. Thus, unimodal clusters are not too far from a status of dynamical equilibrium. On the contrary, velocity dispersions and masses for some bimodal or complex clusters strongly depend on whether they are treated as single systems or as sums of different clumps and X-ray temperatures and velocity dispersions may be very different.

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arXiv1995

Velocity Dispersions and X-Ray Temperatures of Galaxy Clusters

Using a large and well-controlled sample of clusters of galaxies, we investigate the relation between cluster velocity dispersions and X-ray temperatures of intra-cluster gas. In order to obtain a reliable estimate of the total velocity dispersion of a cluster, independent of the level of anisotropies in galaxy orbits, we analyze the integrated velocity dispersion profiles over increasing distances from the cluster centers. Distortions in the velocity fields, the effect of close clusters, the presence of substructures, and the presence of a population of (spiral) galaxies not in virial equilibrium with the cluster potential are taken into account. Using our final sample of 37 clusters, for which a reliable estimate of the velocity dispersion could be obtained, we derive a relation between the velocity dispersions and the X-ray temperatures, with a scatter reduced by more than 30 % with respect to previous works. A chi square fit to the temperature-velocity dispersion relation does not exclude the hypothesis that the ratio between galaxy and gas energy density (the so-called spectral beta) is a constant for all clusters. In particular, the value of beta=1, corresponding to energy equipartition, is acceptable.

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arXiv1994

Optical Radii of Galaxy Clusters

We analyze the density profiles and virial radii for a sample of 90 nearby clusters, using galaxies with available redshifts and positions. Each cluster has at least 20 redshifts measured within an Abell radius, and all the results come from galaxy sets of at least 20 members. Most of the density profiles of our clusters are well fitted by hydrostatic-isothermal-like profiles. The slopes we find for many cluster density profiles are consistent with the hypothesis that the galaxies are in equilibrium with the binding cluster potential. The virial radii correlate with the core radii at a very high significance level. The observed relationship between the two size estimates is in agreement with the theoretical one computed by using the median values of the density profile parameters fitted on our clusters. After correcting for incompleteness in our cluster sample, we provide the universal distributions functions of core and virial radii (obtained within half an Abell radius).

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arXiv1993

The Nuclear Ten Micron Emission of Spiral Galaxies

We examine the 10\m\ emission of the central regions of 281 spiral galaxies, after having compiled all ground-based, small-aperture ($\sim$5") broad-band photometric observations at ł$\sim$10\m\ (N magnitudes) published in the literature. We evaluate the compactness of the $\sim$10\m\ emission of galaxy nuclei by comparing these small-beam measures with the large-beam IRAS 12\m\ fluxes. In the analysis of different subsets of objects, we apply survival analysis techniques in order to exploit the information contained in ``censored'' data (i.e., upper limits on the fluxes). Seyferts are found to contain the most powerful nuclear sources of mid-infrared emission, which in $\sim$1/3 of cases provide the bulk of the emission of the entire galaxy; thus, mid-infrared emission in the outer disc regions is not uncommon in Seyferts. The 10\m\ emission of Seyferts appears to be unrelated to their X-ray emission. HII region-like nuclei are stronger mid-infrared sources than normal nuclei and LINER nuclei (whose level of emission is not distinguishable from that of normal nuclei). Interacting objects have, on average, greater 10\m\ luminosities than non-interacting ones and exhibit more compact emission. Early-type spirals have stronger and more compact 10\m\ emission than late-type ones. Barred spirals are brighter at $\sim$10\m\ than unbarred systems, essentially because they more frequently contain HII region-like nuclei. The results of our detailed comparison between the behaviour of various categories of objects stress that the 10\m\ emission of spiral nuclei is closely linked to the (predominantly non-thermal synchrotron) radio

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arXiv1993

Structures in Galaxy Clusters

The analysis of the presence of substructures in 16 well-sampled clusters of galaxies suggests a stimulating hypothesis: Clusters could be classified as unimodal or bimodal, on the basis of to the sub-clump distribution in the {\em 3-D} space of positions and velocities. The dynamic study of these clusters shows that their fundamental characteristics, in particular the virial masses, are not severely biased by the presence of subclustering if the system considered is bound.

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arXiv1993

A Unique Mass Function from Galaxies to Clusters ?

We present an observational mass function ranging from galaxies to massive galaxy clusters, derived from direct dynamical mass estimates. Our mass function shows, in the low-mass range of galaxies and groups, a behaviour in agreement with that of standard CDM (n=-2), while in the high-mass range (clusters) our mass function is shallower (and thus contains more power) than standard CDM; it also results shallower than the recent mass function by Bahcall & Cen (1993, ApJ 407, L49).

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arXiv1993

The Local Galaxy Density and the Arm Class of Spiral Galaxies

We have examined the effect of the environmental density on the arm classification of an extensive sample of spiral galaxies included in the Nearby Galaxy Catalog (Tully, 1988a). We have also explored the dependence of the arm class of a galaxy on other factors, such as its blue absolute magnitude and its disk-to-total mass ratio, inferred in the literature either from the gradient of a good galaxy rotation curve or from a photometric mass decomposition method. We have found that the arm class is strongly related to the absolute magnitude in the mid-type spirals (in the sense that grand design galaxies are, on average, more luminous than flocculent objects), whilst this relation is considerably weaker in the early and late types. In general the influence of the local density on the arm structure appears to be much weaker than that of the absolute magnitude. The local density acts essentially in strengthening the arm class--absolute magnitude relation for the mid types, whereas no environmental density effects are observed in the early and late types. Using the most recent estimates of the disk-to-total mass ratio, we do not confirm this ratio to be a significant factor which affects the arm class; nevertheless, owing to poor statistics and large uncertanties, the issue remains open. Neither a local density effect nor an unambiguous bar effect on the disk-to-total mass ratio is detectable; the latter finding may challenge some theoretical viewpoints on the formation of bar structures.

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arXiv1993

The Mass Function of Nearby Galaxy Clusters

We present the distribution of virial masses for nearby galaxy clusters, as obtained from a data-set of 75 clusters, each having at least 20 galaxy members with measured redshifts within 1 Abell radius. After having accounted for problems of incompleteness of the data-set, we fitted a power-law to the cluster mass distribution.

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arXiv1993

The Local Galaxy Density and the Bars of Spiral Galaxies

Using a variety of parameters of local galaxy density, we have examined the effects of the environmental density on the presence of bar structures in spiral galaxies of various morphological types. For an extensive sample of nearby galaxies, listed in the ``Nearby Galaxies Catalogue'' (Tully, 1988a), we have found that the spirals characterized by a high local density tend to be barred if they are early-type and early-type if they are barred (at the significance level of $\sim$3 sigma), confirming some earlier suggestion of low statistical significance. This fact, which is observed substantially in low-luminosity spirals, indicates that galaxy interactions can stimulate the formation of bars, primarily in early-type, low-luminosity spirals. This is in partial, qualitative agreement with the most recent relevant N-body simulations. On the other hand, no significant density segregation is observed between pure S-shaped (S(s)) spirals and spirals with inner rings (S(r)), which are often associated with bars. {\it Subject headings:} galaxies: general --- galaxies: structure --- galaxies: interactions --- galaxies: clustering

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