This series of papers explores the evolution of late-type galaxies in the rich cluster Abell 85. Here, we revisit the complex dynamical state of A 85 by using independent methods. We analyze the redshift distribution towards the cluster out to 40,000 km/s, and determine the mean redshifts of the background clusters A 87 and A 89. We then search for substructures in A 85 by considering the 2-D galaxy distribution for its members and by applying the kinematical 3-D Delta-test to both projected positions and radial velocities. This clearly reveals several substructures that we describe. We also analyse the distribution of the brightest blue galaxies across a major fraction of the cluster volume, considering if they are gas-rich or poor. We report a very asymmetric distribution of the blue member galaxies, and connect it with substructures revealed in the optical and X-rays. By matching our sample of bright blue member galaxies with HI detections reported in the literature, we identify gas-rich and gas-poor ones. HI-rich blue galaxies also turn out to be asymmetrically distributed, with most of them projected on the eastern side of the cluster. No blue objects have been detected in HI up to a projected radius of 2 Mpc in this zone. We estimate the ram pressure stripping exerted by the intra-cluster medium as a function of the projected distance from A 85, and quantify how important this mechanism may be in sweeping the gas out of the infalling spirals.
We present evidence for the existence of significant substructure in the cold front cluster Abell 3667 based on multi-object spectroscopy taken with the 3.9m Anglo Australian Telescope. This paper is the second in a series analyzing the relationship between cold fronts observed in Chandra X-ray images and merger activity observed at optical wavelengths. We have obtained 910 galaxy redshifts in the field of Abell 3667 out to 3.5 Mpc, of which 550 are confirmed cluster members, more than doubling the number of spectroscopically confirmed members previously available and probing some 3 mag down t…
We study luminosity and morphology segregation of over 3000 cluster galaxies in an ensemble cluster of 59 rich, nearby galaxy clusters observed in the ESO Nearby Cluster Survey (ENACS). Within this sample we identify those galaxies that are in substructures. We compare the distribution of projected clustercentric distance, R, and 'normalized' relative line-of-sight velocity, v, of several subsamples, using the 2D Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. We find evidence of luminosity segregation only for the ellipticals outside substructure and brighter than M_R = -22.0 +/- 0.1 (h0=100 km/s/Mpc). We confirm t…
We present the results of our multiwavelength study of two nearby Abell clusters that contain extended tailed radio sources. From our analysis of PSPC X-ray, VLA radio, and optical data, we find strong evidence that these clusters are not relaxed. Significant X-ray substructure is revealed by examining their X-ray surface brightness maps. We report 130 new redshifts from the fields of A578 and A1569 and detect the presence of substructure in the velocity and spatial distribution of galaxies. Furthermore, we find that the radio sources in A578 are at rest with respect to their subclusters and t…
We present a combined X-ray and optical analysis of the cold front cluster Abell 1201 using archival Chandra, data and multi-object spectroscopy taken with the 3.9m Anglo Australian and 6.5m Multiple Mirror Telescopes. This paper represents the first in a series presenting a study of a sample of cold front clusters selected from the Chandra, archives with the aim of relating cold fronts to merger activity, understanding the dynamics of mergers and their effect on the cluster constituents. The Chandra X-ray imagery of Abell 1201 reveals two conspicuous surface brightness discontinuities, which …
We present a spectroscopic catalog of the neighboring massive clusters Abell 222 and Abell 223. The catalog contains the positions, redshifts, R magnitudes, V-R color, as well as the equivalent widths for a number of lines for 183 galaxies, 153 of them belonging to the A 222 and A 223 system. We determine the heliocentric redshifts to be z=0.2126+/-0.0008 for A 222 and z=0.2079+/-0.0008 for A 223. The velocity dispersions of both clusters in the cluster restframe are about the same: sigma = 1014^{+90}_{-71} km/s and sigma = 1032^{+99}_{-76} km/s for A 222 and A 223, respectively. While we find…
We study the dynamical status of the poor, low X-ray luminous galaxy clusters Abell 610, Abell 725, and Abell 796 (at z=0.1, 0.09, and 0.16, respectively), containing diffuse radio sources (relic, relic, and possible halo, respectively). Our analysis is based on new spectroscopic data obtained at the William Herschel Telescope for 158 galaxies, new photometry obtained at the Isaac Newton Telescope with the addition of data recovered from the Data Release 5 of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We use statistical tools to select 57, 36, and 26 cluster members and to analyze the kinematics of cluster…
Complementary one-, two-, and three-dimensional tests for detecting the presence of substructure in clusters of galaxies are applied to recently obtained data from the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey. The sample of 25 clusters used in this study includes 16 clusters not previously investigated for substructure. Substructure is detected at or greater than the 99% CL level in at least one test for 21 of the 25 clusters studied here. From the results, it appears that low richness clusters commonly contain subclusters participating in mergers. About half of the clusters have two or more components with…
We present new redshift measurements for 55 galaxies in the vicinity of the rich galaxy cluster Abell 665. When combined with results from the literature, we have good velocity measurements for a sample of 77 confirmed cluster members from which we derive the cluster's redshift z=0.1829 +/- 0.0005 and line-of-sight velocity dispersion of 1390 +/- 120 km/s. Our analysis of the kinematical and spatial data for the subset of galaxies located within the central 750 kpc reveals only subtle evidence for substructure and non-Gaussianity in the velocity distribution. We find that the brightest cluster…
There is a long-standing discrepancy between galaxy cluster masses determined from X-ray and gravitational lensing observations of which Abell 1689 is a well-studied example. In this work we take advantage of 180 ks of Chandra X-ray observations and a new weak gravitational study based on a Hubble Space Telescope mosaic covering the central 1.8 Mpc x 1.4 Mpc to eliminate the mass discrepancy. In contrast to earlier X-ray analyses where the very circular surface brightness has been inferred as Abell 1689 being spherically symmetric and in hydrostatic equilibrium, a hardness ratio map analysis r…
We have obtained U-band polarimetry of the spatially extended, blue optical continuum associated with the FR I radio source PKS 2322-122. PKS 2322-122 is located in the Abell 2597 cluster central galaxy. We find a three sigma upper limit to the degree of polarization of the optical continuum of less than 6%. This limit is inconsistent with the blue continuum being primarily scattered light or synchrotron radiation. We can therefore exclude models which attribute the blue continuum to scattered light from an active nucleus that is hidden from direct view. Essentially all of the data pertaining …
We present 371 galaxy velocities in the field of the very rich cluster Abell 2125 (z~0.25). These were determined using optical spectroscopy collected over several years from both the WIYN 3.5m telescope and NOAO Mayall 4m telescope. Prior studies at a variety of wavelengths (radio, optical, and X-ray) have indicated that A2125 is a likely cluster-cluster merger, a scenario which we are able to test using our large velocity database. We identified 224 cluster galaxies, which were subjected to a broad range of statistical tests using both positional and velocity information to evaluate the clus…
We present results from deep Chandra and XMM-Newton observations of the relaxed X-ray luminous galaxy cluster Abell 2204. We detect metallicity inhomogeneities in the intracluster medium on a variety of distance scales, from a ~12 kpc enhancement containing a few times 10^7 Msun of iron in the centre, to a region at 400 kpc radius with an excess of a few times 10^9 Msun. Subtracting an average surface brightness profile from the X-ray image yields two surface brightness depressions to the north and south of the cluster. Their morphology is similar to the cavities observed in cluster cores, but…
We compare V-band structural properties of cluster and field galaxies, to test whether much of the current cluster membership resulted from the transformation of infalling spirals into red early types. We use 140 galaxies from 3 z<0.6 Abell clusters (A85,A496,A754 - spectroscopic membership) with blue colors, and compare them to 80 field galaxies with similar colors and luminosities. Our previous work (McIntosh et al. 2004, ApJ submitted) shows that the blue galaxies in these local clusters are a recently infalling population that has yet to encounter the dense core. We quantify galaxy interna…
We present a dynamical analysis of the central ~1.3 square degrees of the cluster of galaxies Abell 1367, based on 273 redshift measurements (of which 119 are news). From the analysis of the 146 confirmed cluster members we derive a significantly non-Gaussian velocity distribution, with a mean location C_{BI} = 6484+/-81 km/s and a scale S_{BI} = 891+/-58 km/s. The cluster appears elongated from the North-West to the South-East with two main density peaks associated with two substructures. The North-West subcluster is probably in the early phase of merging into the South-East substructure (~ 0…
We study the orbits of the various types of galaxies observed in the ESO Nearby Abell Cluster Survey. Galaxies within and outside substructures are considered separately. We use the mass profile we determined from the distribution and kinematics of the early-type galaxies (i.e. ellipticals, excluding the brightest ones, and S0s) outside substructures; the latter were assumed to be on isotropic orbits, which is supported by the shape of their velocity distribution. The projected distribution and kinematics of the galaxies of other types are used to search for equilibrium solutions in the gravit…
We present a high resolution dark matter reconstruction of the z=0.165 Abell 901/902 supercluster from a weak lensing analysis of the HST STAGES survey. We detect the four main structures of the supercluster at high significance, resolving substructure within and between the clusters. We find that the distribution of dark matter is well traced by the cluster galaxies, with the brightest cluster galaxies marking out the strongest peaks in the dark matter distribution. We also find a significant extension of the dark matter distribution of Abell 901a in the direction of an infalling X-ray group …
We here combine Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect, X-ray observations and spectroscopic redshifts of member galaxies, to constrain the intrinsic three-dimensional shape of the galaxy cluster: Abell 370. The cluster turns out to be strongly elongated along the l.o.s., with two (or more) substructures in the process of merging. Spectroscopy further suggests that the process must be taking place at a small angle respect to the l.o.s.
This paper presents deep narrow band photometry of the cluster A2317 (z=0.211) carried out using KPNO 4 m and Steward 2.3 m telescopes. Using rest frame Stromgren photometry, it is determined that A2317 has an unusually high fraction of blue galaxies (the Butcher-Oemler effect) for its redshift (f_B=0.35). We demonstrate that the ratio of blue to red galaxies has a strong dependence on absolute magnitude such that blue galaxies dominate the top of the luminosity function. Spectrophotometric classification shows that a majority of the red galaxies are E/S0's, with a small number of reddened sta…
A dynamical analysis of the structure of the clusters of galaxies Abell 119 and Abell 133 is presented, using new redshift data combined with existing data from the literature. We compare our results with those from the X-ray data for these clusters, and with those from radio data for the central cD galaxy in each cluster. A comparison of the mass estimate based on X-ray data and that obtained here after subgroups are eliminated shows them to be comparable. After the elimination of subgroups, 125 galaxy members in Abell 119 and 120 in Abell 133 give dispersions of 472 km/s and 735 km/s respect…
We present preliminary results of a multi-wavelength study focused on the evolution of spiral galaxies in the UV-optical colour-magnitude (CM) diagram. By combining HI, UV and optical observations of the Coma-Abell1367 supercluster we are able to identify galaxies at different stages of their evolution: from healthy star-forming galaxies, to blue HI-poor spirals and transition objects. Our analysis shows that galaxies in the transition region are likely to be the progeny of healthy spirals, whose star-formation has been quenched by the harsh cluster environment. This result suggests that, at l…
We present preliminary results of imaging and spectral analysis of the cluster A496 with the S3 chip on-board the Chandra satellite. We confirm the presence of a cooling flow and radial gradients in elemental abundances. The cluster's core has clear signs of substructures (sharp edges, cavities), similar to those recently found in other cooling flow clusters. The O/Fe ratio distribution indicates that the gas in the core of the cluster is significantly enriched by SN Ia ejecta.
The cluster Abell 2104 is one of the lowest redshift clusters (z=0.153) known to have a gravitational lensing arc. We present detailed analysis of the cluster properties such as the gravitational potential using the X-ray data from ROSAT (HRI) and ASCA, as well as optical imaging and spectroscopic data from the CFHT. The cluster is highly luminous in the X-ray with a bolometric luminosity of Lx ~3x10^{45} ergs/s and a high gas temperature of ~10.4 keV. The X-ray emission extending out to at least a radius of 1.46 Mpc, displays significant substructure. The total mass deduced from the X-ray dat…
We present results from detailed imaging of the centrally dominant radio elliptical galaxy in the cooling flow cluster Abell 2597, using data obtained with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). This object is one of the archetypal "blue-lobed" cooling flow radio elliptical galaxies, also displaying a luminous emission-line nebula, a compact radio source, and a significant dust lane and evidence of molecular gas in its center. We show that the radio source is surrounded by a complex network of emission-line filaments, some of which display a close sp…
Using an example of the Abell 2634 galaxy cluster we discuss the effect of contamination of kinematic data by interlopers and its impact on mass modelling. The cluster data reveal rich substructure along the line of sight. We demonstrate that it is necessary to apply a few independent methods of interloper removal in order to obtain a reliable sample of cluster members. We present results of three such methods which are commonly used in the literature and have been recently extensively tested on simulated data. Only two of them lead to consistent and reliable samples of cluster galaxies. For b…
We have determined the morphological types of 2295 galaxies from the ESO Nearby Abell Cluster Survey (ENACS) from CCD images made with the Dutch telescope on La Silla. The reliability of our classification appears to be quite comparable to that of other classifiers. Recalibration of the ENACS spectral classification shows that early- and late- type galaxies can be distinguished from their spectra with 83% reliability. Ellipticals and S0 galaxies cannot be distinguished spectrally, while spectral classification of late spirals has a reliability of 70%. We derive average pseudo-colors and linest…
A pilot study with the powerful new backend of the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT) of two galaxy clusters at z=0.2 has revealed neutral hydrogen emission from 42 galaxies. The WSRT probes a total combined volume of 3.4x10^4 Mpc^3 at resolutions of 54x86 kpc^2 and 19.7 km/s, surveying both clusters and the large scale structure in which they are embedded. In Abell 963, a dynamically relaxed, lensing Butcher-Oemler cluster with a high blue fraction, most of the gas-rich galaxies are located between 1 and 3 Mpc in projection, northeast from the cluster core. Their velocities are sligh…
We study the X-ray morphology and dynamics of the galaxy cluster Abell 514. Also, the relation between the X-ray properties and Faraday Rotation measures of this cluster are investigated in order to study the connection of magnetic fields and the intra-cluster medium. We use two combined XMM - Newton pointings that are split into three distinct observations. The data allow us to evaluate the overall cluster properties like temperature and metallicity with high accuracy. Additionally, a temperature map and the metallicity distribution are computed, which are used to study the dynamical state of…
We report radial velocities for 99 galaxies with projected positions within 30 arcmin of the center of the cluster A3733 obtained with the MEFOS multifiber spectrograph at the 3.6-m ESO telescope. These measurements are combined with 39 redshifts previously published by Stein (1996) to built a collection of 112 galaxy redshifts in the field of A3733, which is used to examine the kinematics and structure of this cluster. We assign cluster membership to 74 galaxies with heliocentric velocities in the interval 10500-13000 km/s. From this sample of cluster members, we infer a heliocentric systemic…
We present the results from a survey of 57 low-redshift Abell galaxy clusters to study the radial dependence of the luminosity function (LF). The dynamical radius of each cluster, r200, was estimated from the photometric measurement of cluster richness, Bgc. The shape of the LFs are found to correlate with radius such that the faint-end slope, alpha, is generally steeper on the cluster outskirts. The sum of two Schechter functions provides a more adequate fit to the composite LFs than a single Schechter function. LFs based on the selection of red and blue galaxies are bimodal in appearance. Th…
The results obtained from the ASCA observations of the cluster of galaxies Abell 3627 are presented. This cluster, located behind the Milky way, was recently found to be a nearby, X-ray bright and very rich cluster. Pointed observations onto the central region of the cluster gave a gas temperature of $\sim7$ keV and a metallicity of about 0.2 solar. An offset pointing to a substructure elongated to south-east of the cluster center gave a significantly lower temperature of $\sim 5$ keV. The 2--10 keV luminosity within a radius of 40' (1.1 Mpc) is estimated to be $3.7 \times 10^{44} erg/s$. The …
A pilot study with the powerful new backend of the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT) of two galaxy clusters at z=0.2 has revealed neutral hydrogen emission from 39 galaxies. The volume probed for each cluster is 1.7x10^4 Mpc^3, with spatial and velocity resolutions of 54x86 kpc^2 and 19.7 km/s, covering both clusters and the large scale structure in which they are embedded. The spatial distribution of the HI detected galaxies is very different for the two clusters. In Abell 963, most of the gas-rich galaxies are located to the northeast, at 1-3 Mpc from the cluster center in projecti…
We present a catalogue of galaxies in Abell 3653 from observations made with the 2dF spectrograph at the Anglo-Australian Telescope. Of the 391 objects observed, we find 111 are bone-fide members of Abell 3653. We show that the cluster has a velocity of cz = 32214 +/- 83 km/s (z=0.10738 +/- 0.00027), with a velocity dispersion typical of rich, massive clusters of sigma_{cz} = 880^{+66}_{-54}. We find that the cD galaxy has a peculiar velocity of 683 +/- 96 km/s in the cluster restframe - some 7sigma away from the mean cluster velocity, making it one of the largest and most significant peculiar…
We report new results on the cluster of galaxies Abell 970 obtained from X-ray observation with BeppoSAX. Our analysis of the BeppoSAX MECS and LECS data in the range [0.15-10] keV reveals a mean cluster gas temperature of kT = 4.46_{-0.15}^{+0.14}, a metallicity of Z = 0.31_{-0.04}^{+0.05} Z_\odot, and an interstellar hydrogen absorption density column of N_H = 6.05_{-0.97}^{+1.29} 10^20 cm^-2. Moreover, we obtained azimuthally averaged radial profiles of these quantities. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that Abell 970 has been disturbed by a past merger or by the ongoing merge…
We conduct an intensive study of the rich, X-ray luminous, and hot galaxy cluster Abell 697 (at z=0.282), likely containing a diffuse radio emission, to determine its dynamical status. Our analysis is based on new spectroscopic data obtained at the TNG telescope for 93 galaxies and on new photometric data obtained at the INT telescope. We combine galaxy velocity and position information to select 68 cluster members, determine global dynamical properties, and detect possible substructures. The investigation of the dynamical status is also performed by using X-ray data stored in the Chandra arch…
We use the weak gravitational lensing effect to study the mass distribution and dynamical state of a sample of 24 X-ray luminous clusters of galaxies ($0.05<z<0.31$) observed with the VLT-FORS1 under homogeneous sky conditions and subarsecond image quality. The galaxy shapes were measured after deconvolution with a locally determined point-spread-function, while the two-dimensional mass distributions of the clusters were computed using an algorithm based on the maximum entropy method. By comparing the mass and light distributions of the clusters in our sample, we find that their mass centers, …
The existence of dark matter can be proved in an astrophysical context by the discovery of a system in which the observed baryons and the inferred dark matter are spatially segregated, such as the bullet cluster (1E0657-558). The full descriptions of the dark matter halo and X-ray gas substructure motions are necessary to forecast the location of the dark halo from X-ray maps, which can be confirmed by the detection of a galaxy concentration or by gravitational lensing. We present an analytical hydrodynamic model to determine the distance between the X-ray and dark-matter components and the Ma…
We combine new narrow band photometry with archival WFPC2 data for A2218 ($z$=0.18) and A2125 ($z$=0.25), two clusters with intermediate redshifts but very different cluster properties, in order to examine the evolution of galaxy populations. A2218 is a dense, elliptical-rich cluster (Bautz-Morgan type II) similar to Coma in its evolutionary appearance; whereas, A2125 is a less dense, more open cluster (Bautz-Morgan type II-III), although similar in richness to A2218. The color-magnitude relation indicates that A2125 has a more developed blue population than A2218 (the Butcher-Oemler effect), …
We present a dynamical analysis of the galaxy cluster Abell 970 based on a new set of radial velocities measured at ESO, Pic du Midi and Haute-Provence observatories. Our analysis indicates that this cluster has a substructure and is out of dynamical equilibrium. This conclusion is also supported by differences in the positions of the peaks of the surface density distribution and X-ray emission, as well as by the evidence of a large scale velocity gradient in the cluster. We also found a discrepancy between the masses inferred with the virial theorem and with the X-ray emission, what is expect…
We have analysed images of the field of A2390 obtained with the CFHT and HST. The analysis fits models to bulge and disk components to several hundred galaxies, with about equal samples from the cluster and field. We also have assessed and graded asymmetries in the images. The cluster galaxies are compared in different cluster locations and also compared with field galaxies. We find that the central old population galaxies are bulge-dominated, while disk systems have young populations and are found predominantly in the outer cluster. S0 and bulgy disk galaxies are found throughout, but concent…
Deep VLA 1.4 GHz radio continuum imaging of Abell 2255 is presented. This cluster is among the better nearby candidates for rich cluster-cluster merger systems, with evidence including an elongated X-ray morphology, the presence of a radio halo, and substructure present in its galaxy distribution. Our radio observations reach an rms sensitivity of ~40 uJy/beam, enabling us to detect (at 5 sigma) star formation rates as low as 1.4 M(sun)/year from the center of the cluster out to a radial distance of 3 Mpc. The radio data are complemented by optical imaging and a large spectroscopic database, a…
This paper reports maps of the cD galaxy in the rich z=0.23 cluster Abell 2390 at UV, [OII], L alpha and H alpha wavelengths. Spatially resolved UV and optical spectra were obtained with STIS on the Hubble Space Telescope; the 2 arcsec wide slit was aligned close to the long axis and blue lane of the galaxy and includes all the inner bright features seen in WFPC2 images. The L alpha is seen in emission from several bright knots and over an extended region from 4 arcsec NW to 2 arcsec SE of the nucleus. Three of these knots have detected UV continuum as well. H alpha images were obtained with O…
Abell 399 and Abell 401 are both rich clusters of galaxies, at temperatures 7.2keV and 8.5keV respectively. They lie at a projected separation of ~3Mpc, forming a close pair. We have observed the system with the XMM-Newton satellite. The data of each cluster show significant departures from our idealised picture of relaxed rich clusters. There is also evidence for enhanced X-ray flux in the region between the two, where the temperature is higher than our expectations. Although tidal or compression effects might affect the large scale structure of the two clusters, we show that these cannot acc…
We present the Chandra analysis of the galaxy cluster A521 (z=0.247). The high resolution of the Chandra observation has allowed us to refine the original merging scenario proposed for A521, and to reveal new features in its X-ray emission. A521 has strongly substructured ICM density and temperature maps. Its X-ray diffuse emission is elongated along a NW/SE direction (SX2) and shows two major components, a main cluster and a northern group of galaxies. This latter is in turn substructured, showing a clump of cold and very dense gas centred on the BCG, and a northern tail aligned in the SX2 di…
We present new redshifts and positions for 635 galaxies in nine rich clusters containing Wide-Angle Tailed (WAT) radio galaxies. Combined with existing data, we now have a sample of 18 WAT-containing clusters with more than 10 redshifts. This sample contains a substantial portion of the WAT clusters in the VLA 20 cm survey of Abell clusters, including 75% of WAT clusters in the complete survey (z<=0.09), and 20% of WAT clusters with z>0.09. It is a representative sample which should not contain biases other than selection by radio morphology. We graphically present the new data using histogram…
Abell 1689 is a galaxy cluster at $z=0.183$ where previous measurements of its mass using various techniques gave discrepant results. We present a new detailed measurement of the mass with the data based on X-ray observations with the European Photon Imaging Camera aboard the XMM-Newton Observatory, determined by using an unparameterized deprojection technique. Fitting the total mass profile to a Navarro-Frenk-White model yields halo concentration $c=7.2^{+1.6}_{-2.4}$ and $r_{200}=1.13 \pm 0.21 h^{-1} \mathrm{Mpc}$, corresponding to a mass which is less than half of what is found from gravita…
Radio continuum emission at 1.4 GHz was used to identify active galaxies in a sample of 20 nearby Abell clusters. The radio emission indicates either an active galactic nucleus or current star formation, and optical spectroscopy was used to evaluate which of these dominates for each of the radio-selected galaxies. In an analysis which parallels the blue fractions of Butcher-Oemler studies, we calculated radio galaxy fractions for the clusters. One cluster in particular shows a dramatic increase in activity relative to the others: the cluster-cluster merger Abell 2255. We compare the results fo…
The different regimes of gravitational lensing constitutes an interesting tool in order to map the mass distribution in galaxy clusters on different scales. In this proceedings article, I review some work I have performed on this topic. More precisely, I will focus on : (i) galaxy scale substructures, using weak galaxy-galaxy lensing in order to study how does the environment shape their properties; (ii) the mass profile of Abell~1689 as probed combining strong and weak lensing; (iii) the slope of the inner dark matter distribution in Abell~1703 as measured by strong lensing. The lensing resul…
We report the discovery of a rich component of dusty star-forming galaxies contaminating the red-sequence in the supercluster system comprising Abell 901a, 901b and A902 at redshift ~0.17. These galaxies do not fit into the colour-density relation, because their preferred habitat is different from that of regular red-sequence galaxies, which are typically dust-poor, old and passively evolving. The dusty red galaxies prefer the medium-density outskirts of clusters while being rare in both the low-density field and the high-density cluster cores. This new result is based on the information conte…
We present the analysis of 30 ksec of Chandra observations of the galaxy cluster Abell 1835. Overall, the X-ray image shows a relaxed morphology, although we detect substructure in in the inner 30 kpc radius. Spectral analysis shows a steep drop in the X-ray gas temperature from ~12 keV in the outer regions of the cluster to ~4 keV in the core. The Chandra data provide tight constraints on the gravitational potential of the cluster which can be parameterized by a Navarro, Frenk & White (1997) model. The X-ray data allow us to measure the X-ray gas mass fraction as a function of radius, leading…
Subclustering is investigated in a set of 67 rich cluster galaxy samples extracted from the ESO Nearby Abell Cluster Survey (ENACS) catalog. We apply four well-known statistical techniques to evaluate the frequency with which substructure occurs. These diagnostics are sensitive to different aspects of the spatial and velocity distribution of galaxies and explore different scales, thus providing complementary tests of subclustering. The skewness and kurtosis of the global radial velocity distributions, useful for judging the normality, and the powerful $Δ$ test of Dressler & Shectman, which mea…
We present an in-depth analysis of the Butcher-Oemler cluster A2111, including new optical spectroscopy plus a deep Very Large Array (VLA) radio continuum observation. These are combined with optical imaging from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) to assess the activity and properties of member galaxies. Prior X-ray studies have suggested A2111 is a head-on cluster merger, a dynamical state which might be connected to the high level of activity inferred from its blue fraction. We are able to directly assess this claim, using our spectroscopic data to identify 95 cluster members among 196 tota…
We present the results of an analysis of broad band UV observations of the central regions of Abell 1795 observed with the optical monitor on XMM-Newton. As have been found with other UV observations of the central regions of clusters of galaxies, we find evidence for star formation. However, we also find evidence for absorption in the cD galaxy on a more extended scale than has been seen with optical imaging. We also report the first UV observation of part of the filamentary structure seen in H$α$, X-rays and very deep U band imaging. The part of the filament we see is very blue with UV colou…
We present a dynamical analysis of the galaxy cluster Abell 376 based on a set of 73 velocities, most of them measured at Pic du Midi and Haute-Provence observatories and completed with data from the literature. Data on individual galaxies are presented and the accuracy of the determined velocities is discussed as well as some properties of the cluster. We obtained an improved mean redshift value z=0.0478^{+0.005}_{-0.006} and velocity dispersion sigma=852^{+120}_{-76}km/s. Our analysis indicates that inside a radius of 900h_{70}^{-1}kpc (15 arcmin) the cluster is well relaxed without any rema…
We present a detailed analysis of the XMM-Newton and Chandra observations of Abell 2626 focused on the X-ray and radio interactions. Within the region of the radio mini-halo (~70 kpc), there are substructures which are probably produced by the central radio source and the cooling core. We find that there is no obvious correlation between the radio bars and the X-ray image. The morphology of Abell 2626 is more complex than that of the standard X-ray radio bubbles seen in other cool core clusters. Thus, Abell 2626 provides a challenge to models for the cooling flow -- radio source interaction. W…
We present a detailed optical analysis of the galaxy cluster A2163 based on new multicolor wide field imaging and medium-to-high resolution (R~2000) spectroscopy. While X-ray observations have revealed that merging processes are present in this cluster, the merging scenario is complex and not well-defined. We undertook a complementary optical analysis, aiming to understand the dynamics of the system, to add constraints to the merging scenario and to test its effect on the properties of galaxies. We provide a spectroscopic catalog of 512 new objects, where 361 galaxies are identified as cluster…
We present a gravitational lensing analysis of the galaxy cluster Abell 1689, incorporating measurements of the weak shear, flexion, and strong lensing induced in background galaxies. This is the first time that a shapelet technique has been used to reconstruct the distribution of mass in this cluster, and the first time that a flexion signal has been measured using cluster members as lenses. From weak shear measurements alone, we generate a non-parametric mass reconstruction, which shows significant substructure corresponding to groups of galaxies within the cluster. Additionally, our galaxy-…
We present results from optical, X-ray and radio observations of two X-ray bright (L_X ~ 10^{45} erg/s) galaxy clusters. A1451 is at redshift z=0.1989 and has line-of-sight velocity dispersion sigma_v = 1330 km/s as measured from 57 cluster galaxies. It has regular X-ray emission without signs of substructure, a Gaussian velocity distribution, lack of a cooling flow region and significant deviations from the observed scaling laws between luminosity, temperature and velocity dispersion, indicating a possible merging shock. There is only one spectroscopically confirmed cluster radio galaxy, whic…
