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S. Thanki, G. Rhee (UNLV), J. Pinkney (Umich)
Clusters of galaxies have been used for the study of galaxy evolution for many years. The study of cD galaxies, for example, yields clues as to the cluster formation process. Finding greater metallicity in such clusters could confirm that the clusters with cD galaxies are older.
X-ray images reveal smooth distribution of hot gas surrounding the galaxies in some clusters, and clumpy appearance with the gas concentrated in lumps around individual galaxies in others. The clusters with such lumps are suggested to be younger in which the gas expelled from the stars of galaxies has not had enough time to spread between the galaxies. Studying the metallicity of these clusters could be used to confirm such arguments.
A recent preprint by D. A. White presents x-ray data of 106 galaxy clusters including their metallicity. We are carrying out a program of photometric observations for a preliminary sample of 23 clusters from their list with the metallicity ranging from 0.00 solar metallicity to 0.50 solar metallicity. We present the relations between the morphology, luminosity functions and metallicity for the clusters in our sample.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: thanki@physics.unlv.edu