Quantitative measure of evolution of bright cluster galaxies at moderate redshifts

TL;DR

This study quantifies how bright cluster galaxies evolve morphologically over time at moderate redshifts using Hubble data, revealing increases in bulge prominence and early-type galaxy fractions.

Contribution

It introduces a quantitative approach using bulge-disk decomposition to measure morphological evolution in cluster galaxies across redshifts 0.31 to 0.84.

Findings

Increase in mean bulge-to-total luminosity ratio with redshift

Higher fraction of early-type galaxies at lower redshifts

Rise in mean Sersic index indicating more concentrated galaxy profiles

Abstract

Using archival data from the Hubble Space Telescope, we study the quantitative morphological evolution of spectroscopically confirmed bright galaxies in the core regions of nine clusters ranging in redshift from $z = 0.31$ to $z = 0.84$. We use morphological parameters derived from two dimensional bulge-disk decomposition to study the evolution. We find an increase in the mean bulge-to-total luminosity ratio $B/T$ as the Universe evolves. We also find a corresponding increase in the fraction of early type galaxies and in the mean S\'ersic index. We discuss these results and their implications to physical mechanisms for evolution of galaxy morphology.