Study of the infall region of galaxy clusters using data from the S-PLUS project

• Grant number: 24/19951-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate (Direct)
• Start date: March 01, 2025
• End date: January 31, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Astronomy - Extragalactic Astrophysics
• Principal Investigator: Claudia Lucia Mendes de Oliveira
• Grantee: Liana Li
• Host Institution: Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas (IAG). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 19/26492-3 - Science with the Brazilian robotic telescope, AP.ESP

Abstract

The influence and transformations undergone by individual galaxies and galaxy groups upon falling into rich galaxy clusters have been extensively studied, primarily focusing on the innermost regions of these structures where complete spectroscopic information is readily available in the literature. However, the more distant regions from the cluster centers, known as the infall region, up to approximately 5 × R200, where much of the action occurs, have received relatively little attention thus far, largely due to challenges such as precise member selection and lack of spectroscopic data. Nevertheless, a growing body of evidence in the literature has highlighted the necessity of investigating the typical environments of cluster peripheries to fully comprehend the evolution of galaxies within clusters. This thesis aims to comprehensively study a sample of clusters, including regions up to 5 × R200 and beyond where possible. Comprehensive information will be obtained about the clusters themselves and their member galaxies, including properties such as R200, M200, and velocity dispersion, as well as the presence of substructure for the clusters as a whole, and morphological and spectroscopic classification, photo-z's, structural parameters, colors, masses of each component, star formation histories, among others, derived from data from the S-PLUS survey and the literature for the member galaxies. In this context, the project aims to investigate the characteristics of galaxies in clusters, especially in the infall regions, using a sample of at least 30 clusters. The properties of galaxies will be correlated with their positions relative to substructures and filaments around the systems to determine differences attributed to pre- and post-processing processes, and to conduct a comparative study of various regions within the cluster up to the interface between the cluster and the field. To achieve this, spectroscopic and photometric data from the literature and the S-PLUS survey will be utilized.