THE NEXT GENERATION VIRGO CLUSTER SURVEY (NGVS). XIII. THE LUMINOSITY AND MASS FUNCTION OF GALAXIES IN THE CORE OF THE VIRGO CLUSTER AND THE CONTRIBUTION FROM DISRUPTED SATELLITES

We present measurements of the galaxy luminosity and stellar mass function in a 3.71 deg super(2)(0.3 Mpc super(2)) area in the core of the Virgo Cluster, based on u* griz data from the Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey (NGVS). The galaxy sample which consists of 352 objects brighter than Mg= ?9....

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Astrophysical journal 2016-06, Vol.824 (1), p.10-10
Main Authors: Ferrarese, Laura, Cote, Patrick, Sanchez-Janssen, Ruben, Roediger, Joel, McConnachie, Alan W, Durrell, Patrick R, Macarthur, Lauren A, Blakeslee, John P, Duc, Pierre-Alain, Boissier, S
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
GALAXIES
GALAXY CLUSTERS
GALAXY NUCLEI
Globular clusters
Local group (astronomy)
LUMINOSITY
MASS
SATELLITES
Slopes
Stellar mass
Virgo galactic cluster
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Summary:We present measurements of the galaxy luminosity and stellar mass function in a 3.71 deg super(2)(0.3 Mpc super(2)) area in the core of the Virgo Cluster, based on u* griz data from the Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey (NGVS). The galaxy sample which consists of 352 objects brighter than Mg= ?9.13 mag, the 50% completeness limit of the survey reaches 2.2 mag deeper than the widely used Virgo Cluster Catalog and at least 1.2 mag deeper than any sample previously used to measure the luminosity function in Virgo. Using a Bayesian analysis, we find a best-fit faint-end slope of [alpha]= ?1.33 + or - 0.02 for the g-band luminosity function; consistent results are found for the stellar mass function and the luminosity function in the other four NGVS bandpasses. We discuss the implications for the faint-end slope of adding 92 ultracompact dwarfs (UCDs) previously compiled by the NGVS in this region to the galaxy sample, assuming that UCDs are the stripped remnants of nucleated dwarf galaxies. Under this assumption, the slope of the luminosity function (down to the UCD faint magnitude limit, Mg= ?9.6 mag) increases dramatically, up to [alpha]= ?1.60 + or - 0.06 when correcting for the expected number of disrupted non-nucleated galaxies. We also calculate the total number of UCDs and globular clusters that may have been deposited in the core of Virgo owing to the disruption of satellites, both nucleated and non-nucleated. We estimate that ~150 objects with Mg[
ISSN:0004-637X
1538-4357
DOI:10.3847/0004-637X/824/1/10