The impact of environment on distant spiral galaxy evolution: velocity fields and Tully-Fisher relation of intermediate-redshift cluster galaxies; observations and numerical simulations

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Bodo L. Ziegler
• Co-Applicant: Professorin Dr. Sabine Schindler
• Subject Area: Astrophysics and Astronomy
• Term: from 2005 to 2009
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5449239

Galaxy clusters play a fundamental role for the understanding of structure growth in the Universe. Besides the expected assembly of galaxies via mergers in the CDM theory, other interaction phenomena are important in the cluster environment (among galaxies but also hydrodynamic processes between the Intracluster Medium and the galaxy gas, and the influence of a cluster as a whole). To test the importance of these processes we study the stellar populations (sizes, luminosities, morphologies) that heavily depend on the current star formation activity, but also the total gravitational potential via their internal kinematics which are influenced by both luminous and dark matter. We trace possible interaction mechanisms of galaxies in clusters at z ≈ 0.5 by their signatures in structure (with our HST/ACS images) and in the full 2-dimensional velocity field (with our VLT 3D-spectroscopy). To disentangle the various interaction mechanisms and their importance for the evolution of the cluster population, we compare our observations directly with N-body/hydrodynamic simulations we perform both on galaxy scales and cluster scales. In the case of regular kinematics, the evolution of the Tally-Fisher relation can be determined with high accuracy. We ask here for funding to finish 2 ongoing PhD thesis studies (1 observational, 1 numerical).

• DFG Programme: Priority Programmes
• Subproject of: SPP 1177: Witnesses of Cosmic History: Formation and Evolution of Black Holes, Galaxies and Their Environments
• International Connection: Austria
• Participating Person: Professor Dr. Stefan Dreizler