Related papers: The intracluster light and its role in galaxy evol…
The properties of galaxies are known to be affected by their environment, but although galaxies in clusters and groups have been quite thoroughly investigated, little is known presently on galaxies belonging to filaments of the cosmic web,…
Clusters of galaxies are the largest gravitationally bound systems and therefore provide an important way of studying the formation and evolution of the large scale structure of the Universe. Cluster evolution can be inferred from…
Recent optical observations have led to a significant progress in our understanding of galaxy formation and evolution. However, our view on the deep universe is currently limited to the starlight which directly escapes from high-redshift…
We combine a N-body simulation algorithm with a subgrid treatment of galaxy formation, mergers, and tidal destruction, and an observed conditional luminosity function Phi(L|M), to study the origin and evolution of galactic and extragalactic…
Recent work suggests that rich clusters of galaxies commonly have large populations of dwarf (i.e. low luminosity) members, that is their luminosity function (LF) turns up to a steep slope at the faint end. This population, or more…
A galaxy cluster acts as a cosmic telescope over background galaxies but also as a cosmic microscope of the lens imperfections. The diverging magnification of lensing caustics enhances the microlensing effect of substructure present within…
Galaxy evolution is driven by many complex interrelated processes as galaxies accrete gas, form new stars, grow their stellar masses and central black holes, and subsequently quench. The processes that drive these transformations is poorly…
Globular clusters are valuable fossil records of the formation and evolution of their host galaxies. The color distribution of elliptical galaxy globular cluster systems indicates an episodic formation history, consistent with a merger…
Studies of galaxy clusters have proved crucial in helping to establish the standard model of cosmology, with a universe dominated by dark matter and dark energy. A theoretical basis that describes clusters as massive, multi-component,…
I review recent observational progress concerning the evolution of the morphological distribution of galaxies in the rich cluster environment and in the faint field population. By coupling HST imagery with ground-based spectroscopic…
X-ray observations of clusters provide key information on the dark matter, on the formation of structures in the Universe, and can be used to constrain the cosmological parameters. I review our current knowledge, with emphasis on recent XMM…
We assemble a sample of galaxy clusters whose brightest members are dumbbell galaxies and compare them with a control sample in order to investigate if they are the result of recent mergers. We show that the dumbbell sample is no more…
We have examined the orientations of early-type galaxies in the Coma cluster to see whether the well-established tendency for brightest cluster galaxies to share the same major axis orientation as their host cluster also extends to the rest…
I review some important aspects of the structural and statistical properties of the nearby X-ray galaxy cluster population, discussing the new constraints on mass profiles, the mass-temperature relation, and the entropy of the intracluster…
The intracluster light (ICL) is a faint diffuse stellar component in clusters made of stars not bound to individual galaxies. We have carried out a large scale study of this component in the nearby Virgo cluster. The diffuse light is traced…
Changes in the law of gravity have far-reaching implications for the formation and evolution of galaxy clusters, and appear as peculiar signatures in their mass-observable relations, structural properties, internal dynamics, and abundance.…
We study the formation of the Intra-Cluster Light (ICL) using a semi-analytic model of galaxy formation, coupled to merger trees extracted from N-body simulations of groups and clusters. We assume that the ICL forms by (1) stellar stripping…
We present the composite luminosity function of a sample of 17 low-redshift galaxy clusters. Our luminosity functions have been measured for an inner region ($r \leq r_{200}$) and an outer region ($r_{200} \leq r \leq 2r_{200}$) centred on…
Weak gravitational lensing of background galaxies provides a direct probe of the projected matter distribution in and around galaxy clusters. Here we present a self-contained pedagogical review of cluster--galaxy weak lensing, covering a…
Present-day galaxy clusters are the largest virialized structures in the Universe, yet their early assembly remains poorly understood. At z$>$2, clusters in formation span tens of Mpc and host gas-rich, dust-obscured galaxies embedded in…