We have investigated the post-merger signatures of red-sequence galaxies in rich Abell clusters at $z lesssim$ 0.1: A119, A2670, A3330 and A389. Deep images in u, g, r and medium-resolution galaxy spectra were taken using MOSAIC 2 CCD and Hydra MOS m
ounted on a Blanco 4-m telescope at CTIO. Post-merger features are identified by visual inspection based on asymmetric disturbed features, faint structures, discontinuous halo structures, rings and dust lanes. We found that ~ 25% of bright (M_r < -20) cluster red-sequence galaxies show post-merger signatures in four clusters consistently. Most (~ 71%) of the featured galaxies were found to be bulge-dominated, and for the subsample of bulge-dominated red-sequence galaxies, the post-merger fraction rises to ~ 38%. We also found that roughly 4% of bulge-dominated red-sequence galaxies interact (on-going merger). A total of 42% (38% post-merger, 4% on-going merger) of galaxies show merger-related features. Compared to a field galaxy study with a similar limiting magnitude (van Dokkum 2005), our cluster study presents a similar post-merger fraction but a markedly lower on-going merger fraction. The merger fraction derived is surprisingly high for the high density of our clusters, where the fast internal motions of galaxies are thought to play a negative role in galaxy mergers. The fraction of post-merger and on-going merger galaxies can be explained as follows. Most of the post-merger galaxies may have carried over their merger features from their previous halo environment, whereas interacting galaxies interact in the current cluster in situ. According to our semi-analytic calculation, massive cluster haloes may very well have experienced tens of halo mergers over the last 4-5 Gyr; post-merger features last that long, allowing these features to be detected in our clusters today. (Abridged)
One possible channel for the formation of dwarf galaxies involves birth in the tidal tails of interacting galaxies. We report the detection of a bright UV tidal tail and several young tidal dwarf galaxy candidates in the post-merger galaxy NGC 4922 i
n the Coma cluster. Based on a two-component population model (combining young and old stellar populations), we find that the light of tidal tail predominantly comes from young stars (a few Myr old). The Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) ultraviolet data played a critical role in the parameter (age and mass) estimation. Our stellar mass estimates of the tidal dwarf galaxy candidates are ~ 10^{6-7} M_sun, typical for dwarf galaxies.
