Reviewing the frequency and central depletion of ultra-diffuse galaxies in galaxy clusters from the KIWICS survey

Abstract The number of ultra-diffuse galaxies (UDGs) in clusters is of significant importance to constrain models of their formation and evolution. Furthermore, their distribution inside clusters may tell us something about their interactions with their environments. In this work, we revisit the abundance of UDGs in a more consistent way than in previous studies. We add new data of UDGs in eight clusters from the Kapteyn IAC WEAVE INT Clusters Survey (KIWICS), covering a mass range in which only a few clusters have been studied before, and complement these with a compilation of works in the literature to homogeneously study the relation between the number of UDGs and the mass of their host cluster. Overall, we find that the slope of the number of UDGs–cluster mass relation is consistent with being sublinear when considering galaxy groups or linear if they are excluded, but we argue that most likely the behaviour is sublinear. When systematically studying the relation between the projected distance to the innermost UDG and M200 for each cluster, we find hints that favour a picture in which massive clusters destroy UDGs in their centres