EVIDENCE FOR RAPID REDSHIFT EVOLUTION OF STRONG CLUSTER COOLING FLOWS

We present equivalent widths of the [OII]lambda 3727 and H alpha nebular emission lines for 77 brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) selected from the 160 Square Degree ROSAT X-ray survey. We find no [OII]lambda 3727 or H alpha emission stronger than -15 angstrom or -5 angstrom, respectively, in any BCG. The corresponding emission-line luminosities lie below L similar to 6 x 10(40) erg s(-1), which is a factor of 30 below that of NGC 1275 in the Perseus Cluster. A comparison to the detection frequency of nebular emission in BCGs at z less than or similar to 0.35 drawn from the Brightest Cluster Survey indicates that we should have detected roughly one dozen emission-line galaxies, assuming that the two surveys are selecting similar clusters in the X-ray luminosity range 10(42) erg s(-1) to 5 x 10(44) erg s(-1). The absence of luminous nebular emission (i.e., Perseus-like systems) in our sample is consistent with an increase in the number density of strong cooling flow (cooling core) clusters between z = 0.5 and today. The decline in their numbers at higher redshift could be due to cluster mergers and heating by active galactic nuclei.