Multi-wavelength landscape of the young galaxy cluster RXJ1257.2+4738 at z=0.866. II. Morphological properties

TL;DR

This paper investigates the morphological properties of galaxies in the young cluster RXJ1257.2+4738 at z=0.866, revealing diverse galaxy types and environmental effects using ground-based imaging and non-parametric classification methods.

Contribution

It applies a non-parametric morphological classification to cluster galaxies using ground-based data, identifying a significant population of blue ET galaxies and analyzing their properties and environmental relations.

Findings

Classified about 30% of cluster members into LT and ET galaxies.

Discovered a notable population of blue ET galaxies.

Observed mild morphological-density and radius relations in the cluster.

Abstract

The study of the evolution of the morphological distribution of galaxies in different environments can provide important information about the effects of the environment and the physical mechanisms responsible for the morphological transformations. As part of a complete analysis of the young cluster RXJ1257+4738 at z$\sim$0.9, we studied in this work the morphological properties of its galaxies. We used non-parametric methods of morphological classification, as implemented in the galSVM code. The classification with the applied method was possible even using ground-based observations: r'-band imaging from OSIRIS/GTC. We defined very conservative probability limits, taking into account the probability errors, in order to obtain a trustworthy classification. In this way we were able to classify about the 30% of all cluster members, and to separate between LT and ET galaxies. Additionally, when analysing the colour-magnitude diagram, we observed a significant population of blue ET galaxies between the classified ones. We discussed possible explanations for the finding of this population. Moreover, we studied different physical properties of LT, ET, and blue ET galaxies. They turn out to be comparable, with the exception of the stellar mass that shows that the red ET population is more massive. We also analysed the morphology-density and morphology-radius relations, observing that, only when considering the morphological separation between ET and LT galaxies, a mild classical behaviour is obtained. RXJ1257+4738 is a young galaxy cluster, showing a clumpy structure and being still in the process of formation, which could explain the lack of some of the standard morphological relations. This makes this cluster a very attractive case for obtaining the higher resolution data and for studying in more details the morphological properties of the entire cluster and relation with the environment.