Tides, interactions, and fine-scale substructures in galaxy clusters

We present the results of a study on galaxy interactions, tides, and other processes that produce luminous fine-scale substructures in the galaxy clusters: Coma, Perseus, Abell 2199, AWM 3, and AWM 5. All unusual structures in these clusters can be categorized into seven morphologies: interacting galaxies, multiple galaxies (noninteracting), distorted galaxies, tailed galaxies, line galaxies, dwarf galaxy groups, and galaxy aggregates. The various morphologies are described, and a catalog is presented, of 248 objects in these five clusters along with color, and positional information obtained from CCD images taken with the WIYN 3.5 m telescope in broadband B and R filters. Distorted, interacting, and fine-scale substructures have a range of colors extending from blue objects with B-R approximate to O to redder colors at B-R approximate to 2.5. We also find that the structures with the most disturbed morphology have the bluest colors. In addition, the relative number distributions of these structures suggest that two separate classes of galaxy clusters exist: one dominated by distorted structures and the other dominated by galaxy associations. The Coma and Perseus clusters, respectively, are proposed as models for these types of clusters. These structures avoid the deep potentials of the dominant D or cD galaxies in the Coma and Perseus clusters, and tend to clump together. Possible mechanisms for the production of fine-scale substructure are reviewed and compared with observations of z approximate to 0.4 Butcher-Oemler clusters. We conclude, based on color, positional, and statistical data, that the most likely mechanism for the creation of these structures is through an interaction with the gravitational potential of the cluster, possibly coupled with effects of weak interactions with cluster ellipticals.