Dynamics of [CLC]c[/CLC]D Clusters of Galaxies. IV. Conclusion of a Survey of 25 Abell Clusters

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Abstract

We present the final results of a spectroscopic study of a sample of cD galaxy clusters. The goal of this program has been to study the dynamics of the clusters, with emphasis on determining the nature and frequency of cD galaxies with peculiar velocities. Redshifts measured with the MX Spectrometer have been combined with those obtained from the literature to obtain typically 50–150 observed velocities in each of 25 galaxy clusters containing a central cD galaxy. We present a dynamical analysis of the final 11 clusters to be observed in this sample. All 25 clusters are analyzed in a uniform manner to test for the presence of substructure and to determine peculiar velocities and their statistical significance for the central cD galaxy. These peculiar velocities were used to determine whether or not the central cD galaxy is at rest in the cluster potential well. We find that 30%–50% of the clusters in our sample possess significant subclustering (depending on the cluster radius used in the analysis), which is in agreement with other studies of non-cD clusters. Hence, the dynamical state of cD clusters is not different than that of other present-day clusters. After careful study, four of the clusters appear to have a cD galaxy with a significant peculiar velocity. Dressler-Shectman tests indicate that three of these four clusters have statistically significant substructure within 1.5 h Mpc of the cluster center. The dispersion of the cD peculiar velocities is 164 km s-1 around the mean cluster velocity. This represents a significant detection of peculiar cD velocities but at a level that is far below the mean velocity dispersion for this sample of clusters. The picture that emerges is one in which cD galaxies are nearly at rest with respect to the cluster potential well but have small residual velocities due to subcluster mergers.

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