Related papers: Brightest Cluster Galaxies: the centre can(not?) h…
Brightest Cluster Galaxies (BCGs) show exceptional properties over the whole electromagnetic spectrum. Their special location at the centres of galaxy clusters raises the question of the role of the environment on their radio properties. To…
A galaxy's orientation is one of its most basic observable properties. Astronomers once assumed that galaxies are randomly oriented in space, however it is now clear that some have preferred orientations with respect to their surroundings.…
Many brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) at the centers of X-ray selected clusters exhibit clear evidence for recent star formation. However, studies of BCGs in optically-selected clusters show that star formation is not enhanced when…
The size-luminosity relation of early-type Brightest Cluster Galaxies (BCGs), R_e ~ L^0.88, is steeper than that for the bulk of the early-type galaxy population, for which R_e ~ L^0.68. In addition, although BCGs are hardly offset from the…
We perform a detailed study of the location of brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) on the fundamental plane of black hole (BH) accretion, which is an empirical correlation between a BH X-ray and radio luminosity and mass supported by…
We identify close companions of Brightest Cluster Galaxies (BCGs) for the purpose of quantifying the rate at which these galaxies grow via mergers. By exploiting deep photometric data from the CFHTLS, we probe the number of companions per…
We examine the central-galaxy luminosity -- host-halo mass relation for 54 Brightest Group Galaxies (BGGs) and 92 Brightest Cluster Galaxies (BCGs) at z<0.1 and present the first measurement of this relation for a sample of known BCGs at…
One of the most vital observational clues for unraveling the origin of Brightest Cluster Galaxies (BCG) is the observed alignment of the BCGs with their host cluster and its surroundings. We have examined the BCG-cluster alignment effect,…
We present new VLBI observations of a complete sample of Brigthest Cluster Galaxies (BCGs) in nearby Abell Clusters. These data show a possible difference between BCGs in cool core clusters (two-sided parsec scale jets) and in non cool core…
We present a study of the evolution of brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) in a sample of clusters at $0.05 \leq z<0.35$ from the SDSS and WISE with halo masses in the range $6 \times 10^{13}M_\odot$ (massive groups) - $10^{15.5}M_\odot$…
Intrinsic color profiles of a sample of nine Brightest Cluster Galaxies (BCGs) are recovered from the observed color profiles by evaluating spurious gradients introduced by errors in the determination of the sky levels and by different…
We show that the distribution of luminosities of Brightest Cluster Galaxies in an SDSS-based group catalog suggests that BCG luminosities are just the statistical extremes of the group galaxy luminosity function. This latter happens to be…
Using the extended J, H and K magnitudes provided by the 2MASS data archive, we consider the position of brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) in the observed relations between inferred supermassive black hole (SMBH) mass and the host galaxy…
We present the first results from our HST Brightest Cluster Galaxy (BCG) survey of seven central supergiant cluster galaxies and their globular cluster (GC) systems. We measure a total of 48000 GCs in all seven galaxies, representing the…
Brightest Cluster Galaxies (BCGs) are typically massive ellipticals at the centers of clusters. They are believed to experience strong environmental processing, and their mass assembly and star formation history are still debated. We have…
We present measurements of surface brightness and colour profiles for the brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) in a sample of 48 X-ray luminous galaxy clusters. These data were obtained as part of the Canadian Cluster Comparison Project…
Today, the brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) are passive and very massive galaxies at the center of their clusters, and they still accrete mass through swallowing companions and gas from cooling flows. However their formation history is not…
Using a sample of 425 nearby Brightest Cluster Galaxies (BCGs) from von der Linden et al. (2007), we study the relationship between their internal properties (stellar masses, structural parameters and morphologies) and their environment.…
The distribution of offsets between the brightest cluster galaxies of galaxy clusters and the centroid of their dark matter distributions is a promising probe of the underlying dark matter physics. In particular, since this distribution is…
We investigate the near-infrared K-band properties of the brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) in a sample of 93 galaxy clusters and groups, using data from the Two Micron All Sky Survey. Our cluster sample spans a factor of 70 in mass, making…