Multiple Merging Events in the Double Cluster A3128/A3125

Multi-fiber spectroscopy has been obtained for 335 galaxies in the field of the double cluster A3128/A3125, using the 2dF multi-fiber positioner on the AAT. A total of 532 objects in the double cluster now have known redshifts. We have also obtained a 20 ks Chandra ACIS-I image of A3128 and radio imaging with the MOST and the ATCA. The spatial-kinematic distribution of redshifts in the field of A3128/A3125, when combined with the Chandra image of A3128, reveals a variety of substructures present in the galaxy distribution and in the hot ICM. The most striking large-scale feature in the galaxy distribution is an underpopulated redshift zone ~4000 km/s on either side of the cluster velocity at ~17500 km/s. We attribute this depletion zone to the effect of the extensive Horologium-Reticulum Supercluster (HRS), within which A3128/A3125 is embedded. In addition, numerous smaller groups of galaxies are identified, particularly in the underpopulated region within +-4000 km/s of the cluster redshift. Due to the large gravitational influence of the HRS, these groups arrive at A3128 with a very high (hypersonic) infall velocity. Two of these groups appear as elongated filaments in position-velocity diagrams, indicating that they are tidally distended groups which have been disrupted after a close passage through A3128. We have identified a primary NE-SW merger axis connecting A3128 with A3125, along which the filaments are also oriented. In addition, the Chandra image reveals that the X-ray emission is split into two components, each with very small core radii, that are separated by ~1 Mpc along the NE-SW axis. We propose that the complex X-ray morphology is likely the result of the hypersonic infall of a relatively small group into A3128. The group produces a major disruption in the ICM due to its high infall velocity.