Environmental effects on the galaxy luminosity function in the cluster of galaxies Abell 496

¹ Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, CNRS, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, 98bis Bd Arago, 75014 Paris, France
² LAM, Traverse du Siphon, 13012 Marseille, France
³ Centro de Astrofísica da Universidade do Porto, Rua das Estrelas, 4150-762 Porto, Portugal
⁴ Departamento de Matemática Aplicada, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade do Porto, Rua do Campo Alegre 687, 4169-007 Porto, Portugal

Corresponding author: F. Durret, durret@iap.fr

Received: 10 December 2001
Accepted: 4 July 2002

Abstract

We have derived the galaxy luminosity function (GLF) in the cluster of galaxies Abell 496 from a wide field image in the I band. A single Schechter function reproduces quite well the GLF in the 17  22 () magnitude interval, and the power law index of this function is found to be somewhat steeper in the outer regions than in the inner regions. This result agrees with the idea that faint galaxies are more abundant in the outer regions of clusters, while in the denser inner regions they have partly been accreted by larger galaxies or have been dimmed or even disrupted by tidal interactions.