# Environmental Dependence of the Fundamental Plane of Galaxy Clusters

## 1 Introduction

Finding regularities in the characteristics of objects is one of the bridges from data collection to the development of theoretical understanding. A now widely cited regularity concerns the Fundamental Plane (FP) of galaxies (Djorgovski and Davis 1987; Dressler et al. 1987). When three parameters describing galaxies (various formulations are possible) are plotted, the points approximate a plane in the parameter space, telling us that there are really only two independent variables.

More recently, the same approach has been applied to galaxy clusters and a Fundamental Plane has been found here, too (Schaffer et al. 1993; Adami et al. 1998). Fritsch and Buchert (1999)-hereafter FB-examine not only the cluster FP but scatter about it. They define (non-uniquely) the FP in terms of total optical luminosity $`L_o`$, half-light radius $`R_o`$, and X-Ray luminosity $`L_x`$. FP can be used to predict and/or qualify physical characteristics. For instance, FB examine substructure in galaxy clusters, defined as a lack of symmetry and misalignment of concentric isophotes. They find that clusters with strong substructure lie far from the FP. They define the FP as the plane clusters take in the absence of substructure, and the “empirical plane”(EP) as the plane best fit to all clusters in their sample. EP and FP are very close together in their study.

Fujita and Takahara (1999, hereafter FT) have also defined a different fundamental plane using other parameters: gas density, core radius, and temperature as determined for a set of clusters published in Mohr et al. (1999). The gas densities published in Mohr et al. were determined differently for clusters with and without cooling flows, $`\rho _2`$ and $`\rho _1`$ respectively. When a cooling flow is present, FT convert $`\rho _2`$ to $`\rho _1`$ which is more representative of a cluster’s global structure. Thus, for cooling flow clusters, $`\rho _2`$ represents the central gas density as determined in the region of excess emission (the innermost region of a cooling flow cluster) and $`\rho _1`$ represents the converted gas density over a larger (but still central) region of the cluster (see FT and Mohr et al. for further details). FT use $`\rho _1`$ to create their fundamental plane which has much less scatter than the plane of FB.

Recently, it has proven possible to find regularities in the internal properties of clusters using a highly uniform, complete catalog of galaxy cluster redshifts (Miller et al. 1999a; Slinglend et al. 1998). Novikov et al. (1999) described an alignment between the wind direction distorting radio jets inside clusters and the long axis of the supercluster in which the cluster is embedded. Loken, Melott, and Miller (1999) present evidence that the existence of massive cooling flows is correlated with close proximity to other clusters. The results presented here may present a partial explanation for that result.

## 2 Data Analysis

We use a subset of the Abell (1958) and Abell,Corwin, and Olowin (1989) cluster catalogs with conservative cuts that enhance completeness. Clusters are retained with richness $`R1`$, redshift $`z0.10`$, which are not close to the galactic plane, and have redshifts measured (not estimated) for multiple galaxies. With these cuts, the remaining clusters constitute a 98% complete volume- limited sample. Briefly, this sample has only minimal projection effects and few line-of-sight anisotropies (similar in degree to the APM cluster sample (Dalton et al. 1994)). In addition, most (80%) of the clusters in our sample have three or more measured galaxy redshifts. Miller et al. (1999a), have shown that cluster redshifts, determined from only one galaxy, are in error by over 2500 km s<sup>-1</sup> at least 14% of the time. Also, magnitude-redshift relations typically have at least a 25% scatter. A nearest-neighbor study, such as the one presented here, requires accurate cluster redshifts which can only come through multiple-galaxy observations. Additional evidence towards the quality of this dataset come from the Voges et al. (1999) finding that 90% of $`R1`$ Abell clusters (to $`z=0.09`$) are X-ray bright. Finally, we point out that the cluster sample has a nearly constant number density to $`z=0.10`$. Therefore, even as additional dimmer clusters are eventually observed, very few will fall into the volume surveyed here.

### 2.1 Environmental Correlations and the FB Plane

FB kindly provided data which was used in their study. We examined the scatter about their FP. The FB study used the logarithm of optical luminosity $`L_o`$, of X-ray luminosity $`L_x`$, and of half-light radius $`R_o`$ for the clusters; the plane is actually in the space spanned by these axes. (We refer to the axes which lie in the plane and orthogonal to it as the principal axes; the measurables as the physical axes.) Distances from the plane are dimensionless and based on the $`log_{10}`$ of these measurables. This enabled us to associate a distance from the FP for each cluster. We found 23 clusters present in FB for which we were able to reliably define a nearest neighbor distance. Clusters originally in FB but not in our study were excluded for not having a neighbor closer than the survey boundary or for being an $`R=0`$ cluster.

We then looked for a correlation between displacement from the fundamental plane ($`d_p`$) in parameter space and distance from the nearest neighbor ($`d_n`$). Displacement from the fundamental plane was given a sign because the parameters are not symmetric about it. There are no published errors on the parameters used to define the fundamental plane in FB.

Distances in redshift space to all of the clusters in our parent sample were determined for a Friedman-Robertson-Walker Universe with $`q_0`$ = 0 and $`H_0=100`$ km s<sup>-1</sup> Mpc<sup>-1</sup>. (The choice of $`H_0`$ does not affect our correlations, and the effect of reasonable $`q_0`$ is much smaller than other uncertainties which exist.) To account for biasing effects caused by the survey geometry, we have excluded any cases where the distance to the edge of the volume was smaller than $`d_n`$. This left 248 clusters with a nearest-neighbor distance. When calculating $`d_n`$, we have allowed for errors in each cluster’s spatial coordinate according to:

$$\mathrm{}_i=\frac{7h^1Mpc}{\sqrt{N_{cl}}}$$
(1)   
where $`i=x,y,z`$ and $`N_{cl}`$ is the number of galaxies used for the mean cluster redshift. We chose $`7h^1`$Mpc since it is very near the typical velocity dispersion ($`700`$ km s<sup>-1</sup>) of rich clusters (e.g. Zabludoff et al. 1993). We obtain $`N_{cl}`$ from a variety of sources including Struble and Rood (1991), Postman, Huchra and Geller (1992), Zabludoff et al. (1993), Katgert et al. (1996) and Slinglend et al. 1998. The error on each spatial coordinate is typically around $`1.5h^1`$Mpc, which is rather conservative considering an entire Abell radius is defined as $`1.5h^1`$Mpc. We then propagate through the errors on $`x,y,z`$ to calculate $`\sigma _i`$ for each nearest-neighbor distance, $`d_n`$.

We define a weighted correlation coefficient (Bevington, 1969)

$$K\frac{s_{d_n,d_p}^2}{s_{d_n}s_{d_p}}$$
(2)   
where

$$s_{d_n,d_p}^2\frac{\frac{1}{N1}[\frac{1}{\sigma _{i}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}}(d_n^i\overline{d}_n)(d_p^i\overline{d}_p)]}{\frac{1}{N}\frac{1}{\sigma _i}^2}$$
(3)   
and

$$s_{d_n}^2\frac{\frac{1}{N1}[\frac{1}{\sigma _{i}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}}(d_n^i\overline{d}_n)^2]}{\frac{1}{N}\frac{1}{\sigma _{i}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}}}$$
(4)   
and

$$s_{d_p}^2\frac{1}{N1}(d_p^i\overline{d}_p)^2.$$
(5)   
We find $`K=0.41`$, a fairly strong correlation. This is a 2.0$`\sigma `$ result indicating 97.6% confidence that it did not arise as a chance fluctuation. Ignoring the sign of $`d_p`$ considerably weakens the result. If we apply equal weights, the correlation increases to $`K=0.53`$ or a 2.5$`\sigma `$ result.

We also looked for correlations between $`d_n`$ and the three physical axes as well as the other two principal axes of the FP. To calculate $`K`$ in these cases, we replaced $`d_p`$ in equations 3,4,5 with the parameters under examination. We found no significant correlations between $`d_n`$ and any of the other quantities. Our main finding – that the distance a cluster lies from the fundamental plane (defined by FB) in parameter space correlates with it’s nearest neighbor distance – cannot be attributed to any single parameter alone. Nor do we find evidence that the the position projected onto the FP is dependent upon $`d_n`$.

### 2.2 Environmental Correlations and the FT Plane

FT examined and systematized data gathered by Mohr et al. (1999). We also examined the FT data, using $`\rho _1`$, core radius, and gas temperature; there were 14 clusters with nearest neighbors in our data set. In this case, $`d_p`$ has a rather small range, since the FT plane is thin, and we found the reasonable result that there were no significant correlations between it and $`d_n`$, nor are there between $`d_n`$ and the other two principal axes of this ribbon-like FP. Neither was $`d_n`$ signficantly correlated with core radius, temperature or converted gas densities (all $`\rho _1`$ as in FT) considered alone. However, when we examine $`d_n`$ vs. central gas density –using $`\rho _2`$ when a cooling flow is present and otherwise $`\rho _1`$– we find a 2.5$`\sigma `$ (99.4 % confidence) result - a correlation coefficient of $`K=0.67`$. In this case, we used errors on $`d_n`$ as described earlier and errors on $`\rho `$ as published in Mohr et al.. If we apply equal weights to each value for $`d_n`$ and $`\rho `$, the correlation falls to $`K=0.55`$. This property of X-ray clusters – high central gas density in clusters close to other clusters – may explain a key result of Loken et al. (1999): the tendency of a cooling flows to occur in clusters with near neighbors. It appears likely that these crowded clusters have gas densities high enough to give the prerequisite short cooling times.

### 2.3 Selection Effects

Although the Abell/ACO sample used to define nearest neighbors is the most complete of its kind available, there remains the possibility that there are undetermined optical selection effects. For instance, clusters in regions of low galactic neutral hydrogen density (n<sub>H</sub>) might appear brighter. In addition, in regions of low dust and n<sub>H</sub>, Abell (1958) may have been more likely to find a cluster neighbor in close proximity. However, neither $`L_o`$ or $`R_o`$ alone shows a strong correlation towards $`d_n`$. If it did, we might suspect it were a result of superposition or a similar artifact.

With the recent construction of the Schlegel et al. (1998) reddening maps, it is possible to determine whether our highest $`L_o`$ clusters happen to lie in abnormally low regions of galactic extinction. A strong anti-correlation between regions of low HI column density and richer Abell clusters has been found by Nichol & Connolly (1996). Such an effect could result in a greater number of close cluster pairs, which are also brighter, to contaminate our small sample. Therefore, we have compared the magnitude of reddening, E(B-V), as determined from the Schlegel et al. map for $`4000`$ random locations on the sky to those centered on our 23 clusters. A Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S) test shows that the HI distributions are nearly identical and we are not sampling regions of abnormally low HI column densities. In addition, we find no correlations between E(B-V) and $`L_o`$, $`d_n`$ or $`d_p`$.

Another possible selection effect that cannot explain our results is richness. Our sample of 23 clusters contains mostly (18/23) $`R=1`$ clusters and the remaining are $`R=2`$. The mean nearest neighbor distances as a function of richness for the entire complete catalog are R=1: 19.2, R=2: 16.4, and R=3: 22.3 (in $`h^1`$Mpc). Furthermore, clusters show no evidence of richness-dependence in terms of their displacement from FP.

## 3 Conclusions

Cluster properties depend on their environment as parameterized by the distance to their nearest external cluster. After ruling out a substantial number of possible selection effects, we find here that there are strong correlations between cluster properties and the proximity of other clusters.

From the FB study, we find that clusters far from and “below” the FP tend to be isolated. As we move “up” toward their plane in the direction of $`L_o^{0.81}R_o^{0.84}L_x^{0.21}`$, the clusters tend to be much closer in physical space to other clusters. This suggests optically brighter, more compact clusters are in more crowded environments.

From FT, we did not find any significant correlations along their principal axes. However, there was a strong tendency for central gas density to be higher in X-ray clusters which are close to other clusters. This is consistent with the previous paragraph, and may explain the propensity of such crowded clusters to initiate cooling flows (Loken et al. 1999).

We know from the FB analysis also that clusters close to their FP have much less substructure. Putting this together with our results we can summarize as follows: Clusters in crowded environments tend to have less substructure and higher central gas densities. Together this provides an explanation for the Loken et al. (1999) result: a relaxed cluster with little substructure provides the symmetry and high central density needed to set up a massive cooling flow, and these conditions are found in those clusters located in close proximity with other clusters.

This is reasonable on theoretical grounds: perturbations of a given mass scale (in this case clusters) which lie in a larger region of high amplitude are more likely themselves to be of high amplitude. A higher amplitude implies earlier collapse and more time to relax. Such relaxed clusters are more likely to take a more “universal” locus in parameter space, with less substructure (artifact of initial conditions including merger history) a higher central gas density and the ability to initiate a cooling flow. This picture fits together the cooling flow results of Loken et al. (1999), substructure correlations found by FB, and the correlations we found by environmental study of the FB and FT data groups.

Although our sample sizes (23 and 14) are rather small, results of fairly high confidence exist. We take this as evidence of the strength of the effect combined with the superior characteristics of the redshift catalog after the cuts were taken.

Acknowledgments

CM was funded in part by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Maine Science and Technology Foundation. ALM acknowledges the support of the NSF-EPSCoR program, the hospitality of Carnegie Mellon University during part of this work, and authors FB for sharing their data. Jim Fry and David Batuski made helpful suggestions.