Brightest cluster galaxies: the centre can(not?) hold

De Propris, Roberto; West, Michael J.; Andrade-Santos, Felipe; Ragone-Figueroa, Cinthia; Rasia, Elena; Forman, William; Jones, Christine; Kipper, Rain; Borgani, Stefano; Lambas, Diego García; Romashkova, Elena A.; Patra, Kishore C.

doi:10.1093/mnras/staa3286

Brightest cluster galaxies: the centre can(not?) hold

Journal Article · Fri Oct 23 00:00:00 EDT 2020 · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staa3286· OSTI ID:1712534

^[1]; West, Michael J. ^[2]; Andrade-Santos, Felipe ^[3]; ^[4]; Rasia, Elena ^[5]; Forman, William ^[3]; Jones, Christine ^[3]; Kipper, Rain ^[6]; Borgani, Stefano ^[7]; Lambas, Diego García ^[8]; Romashkova, Elena A. ^[9]; Patra, Kishore C. ^[10]

FINCA, University of Turku, Vesilinnantie 5, Turku FI-21400, Finland
Lowell Observatory, 1400 W Mars Hill Rd, Flagstaff, AZ 86001, USA
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
IATE, CONICET, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Laprida 854, X5000BGR, Córdoba, Argentina, INAF, Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste, via Tiepolo 11, I-34131 Trieste, Italy
INAF, Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste, via Tiepolo 11, I-34131 Trieste, Italy, IFPU – Institute for Fundamental Physics of the Universe, Via Beirut 2, I-34014 Trieste, Italy
Tartu Observatory, University of Tartu, Observatooriumi 1, 61602 Tõravere, Estonia
INAF, Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste, via Tiepolo 11, I-34131 Trieste, Italy, IFPU – Institute for Fundamental Physics of the Universe, Via Beirut 2, I-34014 Trieste, Italy, Dipartimento di Fisica dell’ Universit‘a di Trieste, Sezione di Astronomia, via Tiepolo 11, I-34131 Trieste, Italy, INFN – National Institute for Nuclear Physics, Via Valerio 2, I-34127 Trieste, Italy
IATE, CONICET, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Laprida 854, X5000BGR, Córdoba, Argentina
Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
Department of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3411, USA

ABSTRACT

We explore the persistence of the alignment of brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) with their local environment. We find that a significant fraction of BCGs do not coincide with the centroid of the X-ray gas distribution and/or show peculiar velocities (they are not at rest with respect to the cluster mean). Despite this, we find that BCGs are generally aligned with the cluster mass distribution even when they have significant offsets from the X-ray centre and significant peculiar velocities. The large offsets are not consistent with simple theoretical models. To account for these observations BCGs must undergo mergers preferentially along their major axis, the main infall direction. Such BCGs may be oscillating within the cluster potential after having been displaced by mergers or collisions, or the dark matter halo itself may not yet be relaxed.

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Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

OSTI ID:: 1712534

Journal Information:: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Journal Name: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 500; ISSN 0035-8711

Publisher:: Oxford University PressCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United Kingdom

Language:: English

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