Galaxy kinematics across different environments in the RXJ1347−1145 cluster complex

Abstract

Aims. In order to understand the role of the different processes that drive galaxy evolution in clusters, we need comprehensive studies that simultaneously examine several of the most important physical properties of galaxies. In this work we study the interplay between the kinematic state and star formation activity of galaxies in the RXJ1347-1145 cluster complex at z∼0.45. Methods. We used VLT/VIMOS to obtain slit spectra for 95 galaxies across the 40 x40 area where the RXJ1347-1145 cluster complex resides. We determined the cluster membership of our targets by identifying one or more of the available emission lines within the wavelength range. Our spectroscopy is complemented with archival SUBARU/Suprime-Cam deep photometric observations in five optical bands (B, V, Rc, Ic, z'). We examined the kinematic properties of our sample attending to the degree of distortion of the extracted rotation curves. Regular rotating galaxies were included in our Tully-Fisher analysis while the distorted ones were used to study the role of cluster-specific interactions with respect to star formation and AGN activity. Results. Our analysis confirmed the cluster membership for approximately half of our targets. We report a higher fraction of galaxies with irregular gas kinematics in the cluster environment than in the field. Cluster galaxies with regular rotation display a moderate brightening in the B-band Tully-Fisher relation compatible with the gradual evolution of the stellar populations with lookback time, and no significant evolution in the stellar-mass Tully-Fisher relation, in line with previous studies at similar redshift. Average specific star formation rate (sSFR) values are slightly lower in our cluster sample (-0.15 dex) with respect to the main sequence of starforming galaxies, confirming the role of the environment in the early quenching of star formation in clusters. Finally, we carried out an exploratory observational study on the stellar-to-halo mass relation finding that cluster galaxies tend to have slightly lower stellar mass values for a fixed halo mass compared to their field counterparts.

Evolution of galaxy scaling relations in clusters at 0.5 <z< 1.5

“…We have studied the redshift evolution of the TFR, the VSR, and sAMR in clusters up to z ∼ 1.5. We used a collection of clusters at different redshifts for this purpose, many of which were the single focus of previous publications: Abell 901/902 at z ∼ 0.16 (Bösch et al 2013a,b), RXJ1347 at z ∼ 0.45 (Pérez-Martínez et al 2020), XMM2235 at z ∼ 1.4 (Pérez-Martínez et al 2017), and two HSC (proto-)clusters at z ∼ 1.5 (Böhm et al 2020). Furthermore, we presented the first results from a sample of galaxies in the CL1604 cluster system at z ∼ 0.9 observed with GTC/OSIRIS.…”

“…Our previous analysis of HST/ACS images of disk galaxies reported systematical errors of 20% in galaxy sizes (Böhm et al 2013;Pérez-Martínez et al 2020). We also adopted this error value for our work below.…”

“…The shocked gas around two very bright galaxies close to the cluster core suggests that RXJ1347 is undergoing a major merger (Verdugo et al 2012). Our group investigated the internal gas kinematics and star formation activity of a sample of 50 starforming galaxies in RXJ1347 (Pérez-Martínez et al 2020). Most of these objects form part of a previous medium-resolution spectroscopic campaign carried out by our group, which allowed us to confirm their cluster membership and star-forming nature.…”

The evolution of galaxy scaling relations in clusters at 0.5

“…The presence of shocked gas around two very bright galaxies close to the cluster core suggests that RXJ1347 is undergoing a major merger (Verdugo et al 2012). Our group investigated the internal gas kinematics and star formation activity of a sample of 50 star-forming galaxies in RXJ1347 (Pérez-Martínez et al 2020). Most of these objects form part of a previous medium-resolution spectroscopic campaign carried out by our group which allowed us to confirm their cluster membership and star-forming nature.…”

GLACE survey: galaxy activity in ZwCl0024+1652 cluster from strong optical emission lines

“…Moreover, to understand how galaxies transform inside the clusters presents one of the main steps in disentangling the picture of galaxy formation and evolution, and the formation and evolution of the universe at large. Some of previous works observed differences between the properties of galaxies in the field and those in clusters (e.g., Dressler, Thompson & Shectman 1985;Balogh et al 1997;Koopmann & Kenney 1998;Cucciati et al 2010;Chung et al 2011;Hwang et al 2012;Delaye et al 2014;Cantale et al 2016;Allen et al 2016;Maier et al 2016;Saracco et al 2017;Matharu et al 2020;Old et al 2020;Pérez-Martínez et al 2020;Tiley et al 2020), although the difference seems to be more significant for star-forming than for quiescent galaxies (e.g., Allen et al 2016;Saracco et al 2017;Old et al 2020;Tiley et al 2020). Specifically, the star formation activity seems to be anti-correlated with the local density (Haines et al 2013;Kovač et al 2014).…”