Tidal Grinding of Dwarf Galaxies in Cluster Environments

Abstract

Dwarf elliptical galaxies (dEs) dominate galaxy clusters and provide key constraints on environmentally driven galaxy evolution. Here we examine whether the projected shapes of dEs retain information about their accretion and transformation histories using a homogeneous sample of 1,108 bright (m_g < 19 mag) dEs in the Virgo cluster. Based on the axis-ratio (b/a), we define flat (< 0.70) and round (> 0.74) subsamples and compare their spatial and kinematic properties. We find that flat dEs are distributed more uniformly across the cluster, whereas round dEs preferentially occupy regions of stronger tidal fields around massive (M_* > 10^{10} M_sun) galaxies. Within the central 5^\circ x 5^\circ region around the Virgo central galaxy (M87), 149 dEs have spectroscopic radial velocities compiled from public archives. In this region, the two shape classes also exhibit clear kinematic segregation: flat dEs have systematically larger line-of-sight velocity offsets from the cluster mean (median $Δv = 654 km/s$), whereas round dEs have smaller offsets (median $Δv = 414 km/s$), as expected for a more dynamically relaxed population. Flat dEs are consistent with a population that has experienced weaker tidal processing and consequently retains more flattened morphologies. By contrast, round dEs are consistent with prolonged tidal processing (``tidal grinding&#39;&#39;) that may have transformed initially flattened systems into rounder spheroids. However, projection contamination of the round subsample may have introduced some uncertainty in the interpretation of intrinsic galaxy shapes.