Galaxies in present-day clusters: evolutionary constraints from their distributions and kinematics

Abstract

We discuss evidence in local, present-day clusters of galaxies (from the ENACS survey) about the way in which those clusters have evolved and about the evolutionary relationships between the galaxies of different morphological types in them. This evidence is complementary to that obtained from the study of clusters at intermediate and high redshifts. We argue that the spatial distribution and the kinematics of the various types of galaxies in and outside substructures support the following picture. The ELLIPTICAL AND S0 GALAXIES have been around for a long time and have obtained an isotropic velocity distribution. The spatial distribution and kinematics of the EARLY SPIRALS are consistent with the idea that many of their kind have transformed into an S0, but that they have survived, most likely because of their velocities. The distribution and kinematics of the LATE SPIRALS are consistent with a picture in which they have been accreted fairly recently. They have mildly radial orbits and hardly populate the central regions, most likely because they suffer tidal disruption. Finally, the distribution and kinematics of the GALAXIES IN SUBSTRUCTURES, when taken at face value, imply tangential velocity anisotropy for these galaxies, but this result may be (partly) due to the procedure by which these galaxies are selected. A first attempt to take the effects of selection into account shows that isotropic (or even mildly radial) orbits of subcluster galaxies cannot be excluded.