Open AccessIntercluster Filaments of Galaxies Programme: pilot study survey and results
Author(s) -
Pimbblet Kevin A.,
Drinkwater Michael J.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
monthly notices of the royal astronomical society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.058
H-Index - 383
eISSN - 1365-2966
pISSN - 0035-8711
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2004.07178.x
Subject(s) - physics , astrophysics , galaxy , protein filament , redshift , galaxy cluster , cluster (spacecraft) , telescope , population , astronomy , demography , biology , sociology , computer science , genetics , programming language
We present results from a pilot study of a new wide‐field, multicolour ( BVR ) CCD imaging project, designed to examine galaxy evolution along large‐scale filaments that connect clusters of galaxies at intermediate redshifts (0.07 < z < 0.20) . Our pilot data set is based on 0.56 deg 2 of observations targeted on Abell 1079 and Abell 1084 using the Wide Field Imager on the Anglo‐Australian Telescope. We describe our data reduction pipeline and show that our photometric error is 0.04 mag. By selecting galaxies that lie on the colour–magnitude relation of the two clusters we verify the existence of a low‐density (∼3–4 Mpc −2 ) filament population, conjoining them at a distance of >3 r Abell from either cluster. By applying a simple field correction, we characterize this filament population by examining their colour distribution on a ( V – R )–( B – V ) plane. We confirm the galaxian filament detection at a 7.5 σ level using a cut at M V =−18 and we discuss their broad properties.