The evolution of the red sequence slope in massive galaxy clusters
Abstract
We investigate the evolution of the optical and near-infrared colour–magnitude relation in an homogeneous sample of massive clusters from z = 1 to the present epoch. By comparing deep Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys imaging of X-ray selected MAssive Cluster Survey (MACS) clusters at z ~ 0.5 to the similarly selected Las Campanas/AAT Rich Cluster Survey (LARCS) sample at z ~ 0.1, we find that the rest-frame δ(U−V)/δV slope of the colour–magnitude relation evolves with redshift which we attribute to the build up of the red sequence over time. This rest-frame slope evolution is not adequately reproduced by that predicted from semi-analytic models based on the Millennium Simulation despite a prescription for the build up of the red sequence by in-falling galaxies, 'strangulation'. We observe no strong correlation between this slope and the cluster environment at a given redshift demonstrating that the observed evolution is not due to a secondary correlation. Also presented are near-infrared United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) Wide Field CAMera (WFCAM) observations of the LARCS clusters which confirm and improve on the result from Stott et al. (2007) finding that there has been a two-fold increase in faint M_V > −20 galaxies on the red sequence since z = 0.5 to a significance of 5σ.
Additional Information
© 2009 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2009 RAS. Accepted 2009 January 7. Received 2009 January 7; in original form 2008 June 17. We thank the referee for their useful comments which have improved the clarity and conclusions of this paper. Thanks also go to Richard Bower, Philip Best, Jim Geach and Matt Hilton for useful discussions. JPS acknowledges support through a Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council and latterly a Science and Technology Facilities Council Studentship. KAP acknowledges partial support from the Australian Research Council and partial support from a University of Queensland Research Fellowship. The United Kingdom Infrared Telescope is operated by the Joint Astronomy Centre on behalf of the Science and Technology Facilities Council of the U.K. We gratefully acknowledge the allocation of UKIRT service time for our observations. This publication makes use of data products from the 2MASS, which is a joint project of the University of Massachusetts and the Infrared Processing and Analysis Centre/California Institute of Technology, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Science Foundation. The Millennium Simulation data bases used in this paper and the web application providing online access to them were constructed as part of the activities of the German Astrophysical Virtual Observatory.Attached Files
Published - Stott2009p4571Mon_Not_R_Astron_Soc.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 15926
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20090917-143928185
- Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC)
- Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)
- Australian Research Council
- University of Queensland
- NASA
- NSF
- Created
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2009-09-22Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-08Created from EPrint's last_modified field