The ultraviolet upturn in brightest cluster galaxies
Abstract
This paper is part of a series devoted to the investigation of a large sample of brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs), their properties and the relationships between these properties and the properties of the host clusters. In this paper, we compare the stellar population properties derived from high signal-to-noise ratio, optical long-slit spectra with the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) ultraviolet (UV) colour measurements for 36 nearby BCGs to understand the diversity in the most rapidly evolving feature in old stellar systems, the UV upturn. We investigate (1) the possible differences between the UV upturn of BCGs and that of a control sample of ordinary ellipticals in the same mass range, as well as possible correlations between the UV upturn and other general properties of the galaxies; (2) the possible correlations between the UV upturn and the properties of the host clusters and (3) the recently proposed scenarios where helium sedimentation in the cluster centre can produce an enhanced UV upturn. We find systematic differences between the UV colours of BCGs and ordinary ellipticals, but we do not find correlations between these colours and the properties of the host clusters. Furthermore, the observations do not support the predictions made by the helium-sedimentation model as an enhancer of the UV upturn.
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10394/7748https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2010.17666.x
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2010.17666.x/pdf
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
Investigating the star formation histories of the brightest cluster galaxies
Groenewald, D.N.; Loubser, S.I. (Oxford Univ Press, 2014)This article is devoted to the study of the central stellar populations of the brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs). High signal-to-noise ratio, long-slit spectra for a sample of 39 galaxies were fitted against two stellar ... -
The detailed nature of active central cluster galaxies
Loubser, S.I.; Soechting, I.K. (Oxford Univ Press, 2013)We present detailed integral field unit observations of the central few kiloparsecs of the ionized nebulae surrounding four active central cluster galaxies (CCGs) in cooling flow clusters (Abell 0496, 0780, 1644 and ... -
Stellar populations in central cluster galaxies: the influence of cooling flows
Loubser, S.I. (Oxford Univ Press, 2014)We present detailed, high spatial and spectral resolution, long-slit observations of four central cluster galaxies (CCGs; Abell 0085, 0133, 0644 and Ophiuchus) recently obtained on the Southern African Large Telescope. ...