Small-Scale Conformity of the Virgo Cluster Galaxies

Abstract

We investigate the small-scale conformity in color between bright galaxies and their faint companions in the Virgo cluster. Cluster member galaxies are spectroscopically determined using the Extended Virgo Cluster Catalog (EVCC) and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 12 (SDSS DR12). We find that the luminosity-weighted mean color of faint galaxies depends on the color of adjacent bright galaxy as well as on the cluster-scale environment (gravitational potential index). From this result for the entire area of the Virgo cluster, it is not distinguishable whether the small-scale conformity is genuine or is artificially produced due to cluster-scale variation of galaxy color. To disentangle this degeneracy, we divide the Virgo cluster area into three sub-areas so that the cluster-scale environmental dependence is minimized: A1 (central), A2 (intermediate) and A3 (outermost). We find conformity in color between bright galaxies and their faint companions (color-color slope significance S ~ 2.73 sigma and correlation coefficient cc ~ 0.50) in A2, where the cluster-scale environmental dependence is almost negligible. On the other hand, the conformity is not significant or very marginal (S ~ 1.75 sigma and cc ~ 0.27) in A1. The conformity is not significant either in A3 (S ~ 1.59 sigma and cc ~ 0.44), but the sample size is too small in this area. These results are consistent with a scenario in which the small-scale conformity in a cluster is a vestige of infallen groups and these groups lose conformity as they come closer to the cluster center.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa