E+A Galaxies in the near-IR: Field and Clusters

(Abridged) We present near-IR photometry of a selected sample of southern hemisphere E+A galaxies. The sample includes 50 galaxies from nearby and distant clusters as well as E+A galaxies from the field. The photometry includes J, H and Ks apparent magnitudes and colors. Observed colors are obtained from the apparent total magnitudes and compared to spectrophotometric models of galaxy evolution GISSEL96. There is an overall agreement between integrated colors of models and ob...

We present optical and near-infrared photometry of 45 clusters of galaxies at 0.1 < z < 1.3. Galaxy catalogs in each cluster were defined at the longest wavelenth available, generally the K-band, down to approximately two magnitudes below M*. We include finding chart images of the band used for catalog definition. The photometry has been used in previously published papers to examine the origin and evolution of galaxies in distant clusters.

We present an optical and near-infrared survey of galaxies in nearby clusters aimed at determining fundamental quantities of galaxies, such as multivariate luminosity function and color distribution for each Hubble type. The main characteristics of our survey are completeness in absolute magnitude, wide wavelength coverage and faint limiting magnitudes.

In this contribution the ongoing effort to build a statistical sample of clusters of galaxies over a wide range of redshifts to study the evolution of clusters and member galaxies is reviewed. The starting point for this project has been the list of candidate clusters identified from the I-band EIS-WIDE survey data. Since the completion of this survey, new optical/infrared observations have become available and have been used to confirm some of these candidates using the phot...

The Munich Near-IR Cluster Survey (MUNICS) is a K' selected survey covering 1 square degree in the K' and J NIR bands with complementary optical photometry in the V, R, and I bands covering a subarea of 0.35 square degrees. The 3-sigma limiting magnitude is 19.5 in K'. The main goals of the project are the identification of clusters of galaxies at redshifts 0.6<z<1.0 and the study of the evolution of the early-type field population at similar redshifts. Here we present first ...

A sample of nearly 9000 early-type galaxies, in the redshift range 0.01 < z < 0.3, was selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey using morphological and spectral criteria. This paper describes how the sample was selected, presents examples of images and seeing corrected fits to the observed surface brightness profiles, describes our method for estimating K-corrections, and shows that the SDSS spectra are of sufficiently high quality to measure velocity dispersions accurately...

[Abridged] Combining HST/WFPC2 mosaics with extensive ground-based spectroscopy, we study the nature of E+A galaxies in three intermediate redshift clusters (z=0.33, 0.58, & 0.83). From a sample of ~500 confirmed cluster members, we isolate 46 E+A candidates to determine the E+A fraction and study their physical properties. We find E+A's comprise a non-negligible component (~7-13%) of the cluster population at these redshifts, and their diverse nature indicates a heterogeneou...

We present results from an optical-IR photometric study of early-type galaxies in 19 galaxy clusters out to z=0.9. The galaxy sample is selected on the basis of morphologies determined from HST WFPC2 images, and is photometrically defined in the K-band to minimize redshift-dependent selection biases. The optical-IR colors of the early-type cluster galaxies become bluer with increasing redshift in a manner consistent with the passive evolution of an old stellar population form...

Candidate clusters of galaxies drawn from the sample identified from the moderately deep I-band data of the ESO Imaging Survey (EIS), have been used for follow-up optical/infrared imaging and spectroscopic observations. The observations were conducted to assess the nature of these candidates over a large range of redshifts. Currently, 163 EIS candidates have (V-I) colors, 15 have (I-K) and 65 cluster fields have been observed spectroscopically. From a preliminary analysis of ...

We select E+A candidates from a spectroscopic dataset of ~800 field galaxies and measure the E+A fraction at 0.3<z<1 to be 2.7+/-1.1%, a value lower than that in galaxy clusters at comparable redshifts (11+/-3%). HST/WFPC2 imaging for five of our six E+A's shows they have a heterogeneous parent population: these E+A's span a range in half-light radius (0.8-8 kpc) and estimated internal velocity dispersion (50-220 km/s), and they include luminous systems (-21.6<M_Bz-5logh<-19....