Bibcode
Berrier, Joel C.
Bibliographical reference
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #211, #78.02; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 39, p.868
Advertised on:
12
2007
Citations
0
Refereed citations
0
Description
We investigate the assembly histories 56 of galaxy clusters using a pair
of cosmological LCDM N-body simulations. We track infalling galaxy
subhalos with masses large enough to host 0.1 L* galaxies , and find
that the majority of cluster member galaxies experienced no
``pre-processing'' in the group environment prior to their accretion
into the cluster. Only 14 % were accreted from "group" environments
with five or more companions and approximately 65 % of our cluster
members were accreted directly from the field, with no luminous
companions in their host halos. Moreover, galaxies in our clusters are
significantly {em less} likely to have had a recent (< 6 Gyr) large
(>1/4) merger event than a field halo of the same mass. These results
suggest that local, cluster processes like ram-pressure stripping,
galaxy harassment, or strangulation play the dominant role in explaining
the difference between cluster and field populations at a fixed stellar
mass. The accretion times for z=0 cluster members are quite extended,
with 20% incorporated into the cluster halo more than 7 Gyr ago and 45
% accreted within the last 3 Gyr. By comparing the observed
morphological fractions in cluster and field populations, we estimate an
approximate timescale for late-type to early-type transformation within
the cluster environment to be 6 Gyr.