The luminosity -- halo-mass relation for brightest cluster galaxies

TL;DR

This study investigates the relationship between the luminosity of brightest cluster galaxies and their host halo mass across different redshifts, revealing a consistent relation over time and challenging existing galaxy formation models.

Contribution

It provides the first measurement of the luminosity-halo mass relation for BCGs at 0.1<z<0.8, showing no significant evolution and questioning current theoretical predictions.

Findings

Luminosity scales with halo mass as L_K ∝ M_{200}^{0.24} at z<0.1

Luminosity scales as L_K ∝ M_{200}^{0.28} at 0.1<z<0.8

No evidence of evolution in the luminosity-halo mass relation between these redshifts

Abstract

We examine the central-galaxy luminosity -- host-halo mass relation for 54 Brightest Group Galaxies (BGGs) and 92 Brightest Cluster Galaxies (BCGs) at z<0.1 and present the first measurement of this relation for a sample of known BCGs at 0.1<z<0.8 (average z~0.3). At z<0.1 we find L_K \propto M_{200}^{0.24\pm0.08} for the BCGs and the early-type BGGs in groups with extended X-ray emission and L_K \propto M_{200}^{0.11\pm0.10} for the BCGs alone. At 0.1<z<0.8 we find L_K \propto M_{200}^{0.28\pm0.11}. We conclude that there is no evidence for evolution in this relationship between z<0.1 and z<0.8: BCG growth appears to still be limited by the timescale for dynamical friction at these earlier times, not proceeding according to the predictions of current semi-analytic models.