Related papers: Cluster luminosity function and n^th ranked magnit…
A photometric redshift analysis of galaxies in the field of the wide-separation gravitational lens MG2016+112 reveals a population of 69 galaxies with photometric redshifts consistent with being in a cluster at the redshift of the giant…
We use the Cluster-EAGLE simulations to explore the velocity bias introduced when using galaxies, rather than dark matter particles, to estimate the velocity dispersion of a galaxy cluster, a property known to be tightly correlated with…
I review the Globular Cluster Luminosity Function (GCLF) with emphasis on recent observational data and theoretical progress. As is well known, the turn-over magnitude (TOM) is a good distance indicator for early-type galaxies within the…
We investigate the universality of the globular cluster luminosity function (GCLF) and the use of this function as an extragalactic distance indicator. Previous studies have found an offset between GCLF distances and those obtained with…
We present internal velocity dispersion determinations from high-resolution spectroscopic observations of a sample of nine globular clusters in M31. Comprehensive numerical simulations are used to show that the typical uncertainty of our…
Photographic F band photometry of a sample of 36 Abell clusters has been used to study the relation between the magnitude $M_1$ of the brightest cluster member and the Schechter function parameter $M^*$. Clusters appear segregated in the…
The gap between first and second ranked galaxy magnitudes in groups is often considered a tracer of their merger histories, which in turn may affect galaxy properties, and also serves to test galaxy luminosity functions (LFs). We remeasure…
We study the properties of the fossil cluster RX J1416.4+2315 through g' and i'-band imaging and spectroscopy of 25 member galaxies. The system is at a mean redshift of 0.137 and has a velocity dispersion of 584 km s^-1. Superimposed onto…
This is the first in a series of papers on the weak lensing effect caused by clusters of galaxies in Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The photometrically selected cluster sample, known as MaxBCG, includes ~130,000 objects between redshift 0.1 and…
We use the two-point correlation function in redshift space, $\xi(s)$, to study the clustering of the galaxies and groups of the Nearby Optical Galaxy (NOG) Sample, which is a nearly all-sky, complete, magnitude-limited sample of \~7000…
Existing observations are consistent with rich clusters of galaxies having no dust on $\simgt$ Mpc scales, while galaxy groups most probably do have dust distributed over $\lesssim$ Mpc scales. Dust in groups accounts for the observed…
The aim of this study is to quantify the infrared luminosity of clusters as a function of redshift and compare this with the X-ray luminosity. This can potentially constrain the origin of the infrared emission to be intracluster dust and/or…
We measure the clustering of DEEP2 galaxies at z=1 as a function of luminosity on scales 0.1 Mpc/h to 20 Mpc/h. Drawing from a parent catalog of 25,000 galaxies at 0.7<z<1.3 in the full DEEP2 survey, we create volume-limited samples having…
We present the first determination of the pairwise velocity dispersion (PVD) for galaxies in different luminosity intervals using the final release of the Two-Degree Field Galaxy Redshift Survey (2dFGRS). We have discovered quite…
We present a deep multi-colour CCD mosaic of the Coma cluster (Abell 1656), covering 5.2 deg^2 in the B and r bands, and 1.3 deg^2 in the U band. This large, homogeneous data set provides a valuable low redshift comparison sample for…
Type Ia Supernovae are standard candles so their mean apparent magnitude has been exploited to learn about the redshift-distance relationship. Besides intrinsic scatter in this standard candle, additional source of scatter is caused by…
We consider the observational signature of the dynamical effects on the luminosity function of globular clusters. For the three best studied systems, in Milky Way, M31, and M87, there is a statistically significant difference between the…
We use the Minimal Spanning Tree to characterize the aggregation level of given sets of points. We test 3 distances based on the histogram of the MST edges to discriminate between the distributions. We calibrate the method by using…
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…
Supernova Ia magnitude surveys measure the dimensionless luminosity distance $H_{0}D_{L}$. However, from the distances alone one cannot obtain quantities like $H(z)$ or the dark energy equation of state, unless further cosmological…