Journal
ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL SUPPLEMENT SERIES
Volume 199, Issue 1, Pages -Publisher
IOP PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.1088/0067-0049/199/1/23
Keywords
galaxies: elliptical and lenticular, cD
Categories
Funding
- JPL RSA [1377112, MSU RC065166]
- JPL [1353923, MSU RC065195]
- Long Term Space Astrophysics grant [NASA NNG05GD82G, MSU RC062757]
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Ask authors/readers for more resources
We present infrared (IR) and ultraviolet (UV) photometry for a sample of brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs). The BCGs are from a heterogeneous but uniformly characterized sample, the Archive of Chandra Cluster Entropy Profile Tables (ACCEPT), of X-ray galaxy clusters from the Chandra X-ray telescope archive with published gas temperature, density, and entropy profiles. We use archival Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX), Spitzer Space Telescope, and TwoMicron All Sky Survey (2MASS) observations to assemble spectral energy distributions (SEDs) and colors for BCGs. We find that while the SEDs of some BCGs follow the expectation of red, dust-free old stellar populations, many exhibit signatures of recent star formation in the form of excess UV or mid-IR emission, or both. We establish a mean near-UV (NUV) to 2MASS K color of 6.59 +/- 0.34 for quiescent BCGs. We use this mean color to quantify the UV excess associated with star formation in the active BCGs. We use both fits to a template of an evolved stellar population and library of starburst models and mid-IR star formation relations to estimate the obscured star formation rates (SFRs). We show that many of the BCGs in X-ray clusters with low central gas entropy exhibit enhanced UV (38%) and mid-IR emission (43%) from 8 to 160 mu m, above that expected from an old stellar population. These excesses are consistent with ongoing star formation activity in the BCG, star formation that appears to be enabled by the presence of high-density, X-ray-emitting intergalactic gas in the core of the cluster of galaxies. This hot, X-ray-emitting gas may provide the enhanced ambient pressure and some of the fuel to trigger star formation. This result is consistent with previous works that showed that BCGs in clusters with low central gas entropies host Ha emission-line nebulae and radio sources, while clusters with high central gas entropy exhibit none of these features. GALEX UV and Spitzer mid-IR measurements combined provide a complete picture of unobscured and obscured star formation occurring in these systems. We present IR and UV photometry and estimated equivalent continuous SFRs for a sample of BCGs.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available