Chemical effects on the development of the colour-magnitude relation of cluster galaxies

JIMÉNEZ. N.; CORA, S.; BASSINO, L.; SMITH CASTELLI, A. V.; TECCE, T.

Salta

Encuentro; 53 Reunión Anual de la Asociación Argentina de Astronomía; 2010

Universidad Nacional de Salta-IATE

We investigate the development of the colour-magnitude relation (CMR) of cluster galaxies by using a combination of cosmologicalN-body simulations of galaxy clusters, and a semi-analytic model ofgalaxy formation, widening the dynamical range of the study by Jiménez et al. (2009). Our results reinforce the previous conclusions. We compare both simulated and observed CMRs in different bands, finding a very good agreement in all cases. This indicates that the physical processes included in the semi-analytic model and the adequate tuning of the free parameters involved help reproduce fairly well the main properties of galaxies for further use in our study. In the present work, we perform a statistical analysis of the relative contribution to the stellar mass and metallicity of galaxies along the CMR by the different processes involved in their formation and evolution. The results that emerge from this analysis are found for all simulated clusters, supporting the idea of the universality of the CMR in agreement with observational results.