Related papers: Five E+A (post-starburst) galaxies as Brightest Cl…
The current consensus is that galaxies begin as small density fluctuations in the early Universe and grow by in situ star formation and hierarchical merging. Stars begin to form relatively quickly in sub-galactic sized building blocks…
Approximately half of the nearby E+A galaxies followed up with 21-cm observations have detectable HI emission. The optical spectra of these galaxies show strong post-starburst stellar populations but no optical emission lines implying…
We present new (B,I) photometry for the globular cluster systems in eight Brightest Cluster Galaxies (BCGs), obtained with the ACS/WFC camera on the Hubble Space Telescope. In the very rich cluster systems that reside within these giant…
Post-starburst (or "E+A") galaxies are characterized by low H$\alpha$ emission and strong Balmer absorption, suggesting a recent starburst, but little current star formation. Although many of these galaxies show evidence of recent mergers,…
Post-starburst galaxies are believed to be in a rapid transition between major merger starbursts and quiescent ellipticals. Their optical spectrum is dominated by A-type stars, suggesting a starburst that was quenched recently. While…
A recent paper (Burke, Collins & Mann 2000) presents the analysis of the K-band Hubble diagram of 76 brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) in X-ray clusters and shows that the properties of BCGs depend on the X-ray luminosity (Lx) of their host…
We present the mid-infrared (IR) star formation rates of 245 X-ray selected, nearby (z<0.1) brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs). A homogeneous and volume limited sample of BCGs was created by X-ray selecting clusters with L_x > 1x10^44 erg/s.…
We present HST/WFPC2 observations of the five bluest E+A galaxies (z~0.1) in the Zabludoff et al. sample to study whether their detailed morphologies are consistent with late-to-early type evolution and to determine what drives that…
Studying structural parameters of brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) provides important clues to understand their formation and evolution. We present the results of the surface brightness profile fitting of 1685 brightest cluster galaxies…
Using a sample of 98 galaxy clusters recently imaged in the near infra-red with the ESO NTT, WIYN and WHT telescopes, supplemented with 33 clusters from the ESO archive, we measure how the stellar mass of the most massive galaxies in the…
We present new spectra of dominant galaxies in X-ray selected clusters, which combine with our previously published spectra to form a sample of 256 dominant galaxies in 215 clusters; 177 of these are members of the ROSAT Brightest Cluster…
We measure the Petrosian structural properties of 33 brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) at redshifts z<0.1 in X-ray selected clusters with a wide range of X-ray luminosities. We find that some BCGs show distinct signatures in their Petrosian…
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…
We present a multi-wavelength study of 90 brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) in a sample of galaxy clusters selected via the Sunyaev Zel'dovich effect by the South Pole Telescope, utilizing data from various ground- and space-based…
We present new deep spectroscopic observations of 0.05--0.5 L_* galaxies in one cluster (cl1232.5-1250) drawn from the ESO Distant Cluster Survey (EDisCS) sample, at z = 0.54. The new data extend the spectroscopy already available for this…
The brightest, or first-ranked, galaxies (BCGs) in rich clusters show a very small dispersion in luminosity, making them excellent standard candles. This small dispersion has raised questions about the nature of BCGs. Are they simply the…
Post-starburst or "E+A" galaxies are rapidly transitioning from star-forming to quiescence. While the current star formation rate of post-starbursts is already at the level of early type galaxies, we recently discovered that many have large…
We present new VLBI observations of Brightest Cluster Galaxies in eight nearby Abell clusters. These data show a possible difference between Brightest Cluster Galaxies in cool core clusters (two-sided pc scale jets) and in non cool core…
Brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) have grown by accreting numerous smaller galaxies and can be used as tracers of cluster formation and evolution in the cosmic web. However, there is still a controversy on the main epoch of formation of…
We present a detailed analysis of the surface brightness distribution of the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG) in each of 24 galaxy clusters at 0.03<z<0.13. We use two-dimensional profile fitting to model the surface brightness out to r=300…