Multicolor Photometry of the Merging Galaxy Cluster A2319: Dynamics and Star Formation Properties

TL;DR

This study uses multicolor photometry to analyze the dynamics and star formation properties of the merging galaxy cluster A2319, revealing environmental effects on galaxy evolution during the merger process.

Contribution

It provides detailed photometric data and analysis of A2319's substructures, dynamics, and star formation, highlighting environmental influences during cluster merging.

Findings

Identification of A2319B substructure confirming merger activity.

Environmental effects influence star formation histories in different regions.

Higher fraction of star-forming galaxies compared to relaxed clusters.

Abstract

Asymmetric X-ray emission and powerful cluster-scale radio halo indicate that A2319 is a merging cluster of galaxies. This paper presents our multicolor photometry for A2319 with 15 optical intermediate filters in the Beijing-Arizona-Taiwan-Connecticut (BATC) system. There are 142 galaxies with known spectroscopic redshifts within the viewing field, including 128 member galaxies (called sample I).A large velocity dispersion in the rest frame suggests a merger dynamics in A2319. The contour map of projected density and localized velocity structure confirm the so-called A2319B substructure, at ~ 10' NW to the main concentration A2319A. The spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of more than 30,000 sources are obtained in our BATC photometry down to V ~ 20 mag. With color-color diagrams and photometric redshift technique, 233 galaxies brighter than h=19.0 are newly selected as member candidates. The early-type galaxies are found to follow a tight color-magnitude correlation. Based on sample I and the enlarged sample of member galaxies (called sample II), subcluster A2319B is confirmed. A strong environmental effect on star formation histories is found in the manner that galaxies in the sparse regions have various star formation histories, while galaxies in the dense regions are found to have shorter SFR time scales, older stellar ages, and higher ISM metallicities. For the merging cluster A2319, local surface density is a better environmental indicator rather than the clustercentric distance. Compared with the well-relaxed cluster A2589, a higher fraction of star-forming galaxies is found in A2319, indicating that the galaxy-scale turbulence stimulated by the subcluster merger might have played a role in triggering the star formation activity.