Dwarf Galaxies in Clusters: the Effects of a Violent Environment

Abstract

Recent observations suggest that dwarf galaxies pervade the universe, for they have been encountered in large numbers in all the environments. However, we present evidence that suggests dwarf galaxies may be subject to strong dynamical processes in high density environments, the combined effects of multiple encounters and the tidal effects due to the potential well of rich clusters could result in the effective disruption of dwarf galaxies in the clusters' central regions. Alternatively, the lack of dwarf galaxies in rich environments has been interpreted in terms of a "density-morphology relation": dwarf galaxies prefer low density environments (Phillipps et al. 1998). We argue that such an explanation cannot account for the relationship between the cD halo luminosity and the gas mass in the ICM, whereas the dwarf disruption scenario proposed by Lopez-Cruz et al. (1997) addresses this naturally.