Issue A&A Volume 479, Number 1, February III 2008 Page(s) 1 - 8 Section Cosmology (including clusters of galaxies) DOI 10.1051/0004-6361:20042242

A&A 479, 1-8 (2008)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20042242

The optical morphology of A3667 re-examined

M. Johnston-Hollitt¹, R. W. Hunstead², and E. Corbett<sup>3

1</sup>  School of Maths & Physics, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 21, Hobart, Tas 7001, Australia
    e-mail: Melanie.JohnstonHollitt@utas.edu.au
²  School of Physics, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
³  Anglo-Australian Observatory, PO Box 296, Epping NSW 1710, Australia

(Received 23 October 2004 / Accepted 21 November 2007)

Abstract
The galaxy cluster A3667 was observed using the Two-degree Field (2dF) multifibre spectroscopic system on the Anglo-Australian Telescope in a program designed to examine the velocity structure in the region. Specifically, we sought evidence from the optical data for the putative cluster merger believed to be responsible for the observed radio and X-ray emission. We present 184 new redshifts in the region, of which 143 correspond to member galaxies of A3667. We find the cluster velocity distribution to be well modelled by a single Gaussian in agreement with previous results. In addition, new redshift-selected isodensity plots significantly reduce the prominence of the previously reported subgroup to the north-west of the main cluster. Instead, we find the galaxy distribution to be elongated and well mixed, with a high velocity dispersion and no significant evidence for substructure. These results are consistent with the axis of the proposed merger being close to the plane of the sky.

Key words: galaxies: clusters: individual: A3667

© ESO 2008

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