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Register a new userConstraints On the Size Evolution of Brightest Cluster Galaxies
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Amy E. Nelson
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We measure the luminosity profiles of 16 brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) at $0.4 < z < 0.8$ using high resolution F160W NICMOS and F814W WFPC2 HST imaging. The heterogeneous sample is drawn from a variety of surveys: seven from clusters in the Einstein Medium Sensitivity Survey, five from the Las Campanas Distant Cluster Survey and its northern hemisphere precursor, and the remaining four from traditional optical surveys. We find that the surface brightness profiles of all but three of these BCGs are well described by a standard de Vaucouleurs ($r^{1/4}$) profile out to at least $sim2r_{e}$ and that the biweight-estimated NICMOS effective radius of our high redshift BCGs ($r_{e} = 8.3pm 1.4$ kpc for $H_{0} = 80$ km s$^{-1}$ Mpc$^{-1}$, $Omega_{m} = 0.2, Omega_Lambda = 0.0$) is $sim 2$ times smaller than that measured for a local BCG sample. If high redshift BCGs are in dynamical equilibrium and satisfy the same scaling relations as low redshift ones, this change in size would correspond to a mass growth of a factor of 2 since $z sim 0.5$. However, the biweight-estimated WFPC2 effective radius of our sample is 18 $pm $ 5.1 kpc, which is fully consistent with the local sample. While we can rule out mass accretion rates higher than a factor of 2 in our sample, the discrepancy between our NICMOS and WFPC2 results, which after various tests we describe appears to be physical, does not yet allow us to place strong constraints on accretion rates below that level.
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The K-band Hubble diagram of Brightest Cluster Galaxies (BCGs) is presented for a large, X-ray selected cluster sample extending out to z = 0.8. The controversy over the degree of BCG evolution is shown to be due to sample selection, since the BCG luminosity depends upon the cluster environment. Selecting only the most X-ray luminous clusters produces a BCG sample which shows, under the assumption of an Einstein-de Sitter cosmology, significantly less mass growth than that predicted by current semi-analytic galaxy formation models, and significant evidence of any growth only if the dominant stellar population of the BCGs formed relatively recently (z <= 2.6).
We use stellar and dynamical mass profiles, combined with a stellar population analysis, of 32 brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) at redshifts of 0.05 $leq z leq$ 0.30, to place constraints on their stellar Initial Mass Function (IMF). We measure the spatially-resolved stellar population properties of the BCGs, and use it to derive their stellar mass-to-light ratios ($Upsilon_{star rm POP}$). We find young stellar populations ($<$200 Myr) in the centres of 22 per cent of the sample, and constant $Upsilon_{star rm POP}$ within 15 kpc for 60 per cent of the sample. We further use the stellar mass-to-light ratio from the dynamical mass profiles of the BCGs ($Upsilon_{star rm DYN}$), modelled using a Multi-Gaussian Expansion (MGE) and Jeans Anisotropic Method (JAM), with the dark matter contribution explicitly constrained from weak gravitational lensing measurements. We directly compare the stellar mass-to-light ratios derived from the two independent methods, $Upsilon_{star rm POP}$ (assuming some IMF) to $Upsilon_{star rm DYN}$ for the subsample of BCGs with no young stellar populations and constant $Upsilon_{star rm POP}$. We find that for the majority of these BCGs, a Salpeter (or even more bottom-heavy) IMF is needed to reconcile the stellar population and dynamical modelling results although for a small number of BCGs, a Kroupa (or even lighter) IMF is preferred. For those BCGs better fit with a Salpeter IMF, we find that the mass-excess factor against velocity dispersion falls on an extrapolation (towards higher masses) of known literature correlations. We conclude that there is substantial scatter in the IMF amongst the highest-mass galaxies.
(Abridged) We have derived detailed R band luminosity profiles and structural parameters for a total of 430 brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs), down to a limiting surface brightness of 24.5 mag/arcsec^2. Light profiles were initially fitted with a Sersics R^(1/n) model, but we found that 205 (~48) BCGs require a double component model to accurately match their light profiles. The best fit for these 205 galaxies is an inner Sersic model, with indices n~1-7, plus an outer exponential component. Thus, we establish the existence of two categories of the BCGs luminosity profiles: single and double component profiles. We found that double profile BCGs are brighter ~0.2 mag than single profile BCG. In fact, the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test applied to these subsamples indicates that they have different total magnitude distributions, with mean values M_R=-23.8 +/- 0.6 mag for single profile BCGs and M_R=-24.0 +/- 0.5 mag for double profile BCGs. We find that partial luminosities for both subsamples are indistinguishable up to r = 15 kpc, while for r > 20 kpc the luminosities we obtain are on average 0.2 mag brighter for double profile BCGs. This result indicates that extra-light for double profile BCGs does not come from the inner region but from the outer regions of these galaxies. The best fit slope of the Kormendy relation for the whole sample is a = 3.13 +/- 0.04$. However, when fitted separately, single and double profile BCGs show different slopes: a_(single) = 3.29 +/- 0.06 and a_(double)= 2.79 +/- 0.08. On the other hand, we did not find differences between these two BCGs categories when we compared global cluster properties such as the BCG-projected position relative to the cluster X-ray center emission, X-ray luminosity, or BCG orientation with respect to the cluster position angle.
[Abridged] We present K-band data for the brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) from the ESO Distant Cluster Survey. These data are combined with photometry from Aragon-Salamanca et al. (1998) and a low-redshift comparison sample from von der Linden et al. (2007). The K-band Hubble diagram for BCGs exhibits very low scatter (~0.35mag) since z=1. The colour and $K$-band luminosity evolution of the BCGs are in good agreement with passively-evolving stellar populations formed at z>2. We do not detect any significant change in the stellar mass of the BCG since z~1. These results do not seem to depend on the velocity dispersion of the parent cluster. There is a correlation between the 1D velocity dispersion of the clusters and the K-band luminosity of the BCGs (after correcting for passive evolution). The clusters with large velocity dispersions tend to have brighter BCGs, i.e., BCGs with larger stellar masses. This dependency, although significant, is relatively weak: the stellar mass of the BCGs changes only by ~70% over a two-order-of-magnitude range in cluster mass. This dependency doesnt change significantly with redshift. The models of De Lucia & Blaizot (2007) predict colours which are in reasonable agreement with the observations because the growth in stellar mass is dominated by the accretion of old stars. However, the stellar mass in the model BCGs grows by a factor of 3-4 since z=1, a growth rate which seems to be ruled out by the observations. The models predict a dependency between the BCGs stellar mass and the velocity dispersion of the parent cluster in the same sense as the data, but the dependency is significantly stronger than observed. However, one major difficulty in this comparison is that we have measured fixed metric aperture magnitudes while the models compute total luminosities.
We present the results of a survey of the brightest UV-selected galaxies in protoclusters. These proto-brightest cluster galaxy (proto-BCG) candidates are drawn from 179 overdense regions of $g$-dropout galaxies at $zsim4$ from the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program identified previously as good protocluster candidates. This study is the first to extend the systematic study of the progenitors of BCGs from $zsim2$ to $zsim4$. We carefully remove possible contaminants from foreground galaxies and, for each structure, we select the brightest galaxy that is at least 1 mag brighter than the fifth brightest galaxy. We select 63 proto-BCG candidates and compare their properties with those of galaxies in the field and those of other galaxies in overdense structures. The proto-BCG candidates and their surrounding galaxies have different rest-UV color $(i - z)$ distributions to field galaxies and other galaxies in protoclusters that do not host proto-BCGs. In addition, galaxies surrounding proto-BCGs are brighter than those in protoclusters without proto-BCGs. The image stacking analysis reveals that the average effective radius of proto-BCGs is $sim28%$ larger than that of field galaxies. The $i-z$ color differences suggest that proto-BCGs and their surrounding galaxies are dustier than other galaxies at $zsim4$. These results suggest that specific environmental effects or assembly biasses have already emerged in some protoclusters as early as $z sim 4$, and we suggest that proto-BCGs have different star formation histories than other galaxies in the same epoch.
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