English

Beyond S\'ersic + exponential disc morphologies in the Coma Cluster

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2015-09-23 v1

Abstract

[abridged] We explore the diversity of internal galaxy structures in the Coma cluster across a wide range of luminosities (17-17\,>>\,MgM_g\,>>\,22-22) and cluster-centric radii (00\,<<\,rclusterr_{\rm{cluster}}\,<<\,1.3 r200r_{200}) through analysis of deep Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope ii band imaging. We present 2D multi-component decomposition via GALFIT, encompassing a wide range of candidate model morphologies with up to three photometric components. Particular focus is placed on early-type galaxies with outer discs (i.e. S0s), and deviations from simple (`unbroken') exponential discs. Rigorous filtering ensures that each model component provides a statistically significant improvement to the goodness-of-fit. The majority of Coma cluster members in our sample (478 of 631) are reliably fitted by symmetric structural models. Of these, 134 (28%28\%) are single S\'{e}rsic objects, 143 (30%30\%) are well-described by 2 component structures, while 201 (42%42\%) require more complex models. Multi-component S\'{e}rsic galaxies resemble compact psuedobulges (nn\sim\,2, ReR_e \sim\, 4 kpc) surrounded by extended Gaussian-like outer structures (Re>10R_e > 10 kpc). 11\% of galaxies (N=52N=52) feature a break in their outer profiles, indicating `truncated' or `anti-truncated' discs. Beyond the break radius, truncated galaxies are structurally consistent with exponential discs, disfavouring physical truncation as their formation mechanism. Bulge luminosity in anti-truncated galaxies correlates strongly with galaxy luminosity, indicating a bulge-enhancing origin for these systems. Both types of broken disc are found overwhelmingly (>70%>70\%) in `barred' galaxies, despite a low measured bar fraction for Coma (20±2%20\pm2\%). Thus, galaxy bars play an important role in formation of broken disc structures. No strong variation in galaxy structure is detected with projected cluster-centric radius.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1507.07930,
  title  = {Beyond S\'ersic + exponential disc morphologies in the Coma Cluster},
  author = {Jacob T. C. G. Head and John R. Lucey and Michael J. Hudson},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1507.07930},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

26 pages, 24 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

R2 v1 2026-06-22T10:20:58.137Z