Fundamental Properties of Galaxy Clusters: A Prelude to Large Scale Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect/near-Ir Cluster Surveys

227 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2005.The second thrust of the dissertation is a systematic survey of the near-IR properties of cluster galaxies. With a large nearby cluster sample that spans a wide range in mass, we study scaling relations between the total galaxy luminosity or number and the cluster binding mass. The origins of such correlations are discussed in terms of a variation of star formation efficiency with cluster mass, various dynamical processes that affect galaxy evolution, and the hierarchical formation of structure. We proceed to study the properties of various cluster components, including the brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) and the stars and gas that exist within the intracluster space. Constraints on BCG formation and the thermodynamic history of the intracluster medium are presented. Finally, with deep near-IR imaging data, we examine in detail the luminosity function for a smaller cluster sample, which extends to z ∼ 1. We confirm the existence of the scaling relations found in nearby clusters, and determine their evolution with redshift.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD