Stellar populations in superclusters of galaxies

Abstract

A catalogue of superclusters of galaxies is used to investigate the influence of the supercluster environment on galaxy populations, considering galaxies brighter than Mr < -21 + 5log h. Empirical spectral synthesis techniques are applied to obtain the stellar population properties of galaxies which belong to superclusters and representative values of stellar population parameters are attributed to each supercluster. We show that richer superclusters present denser environments and older stellar populations. The galaxy populations of superclusters classified as filaments and pancakes are statistically similar, indicating that the morphology of superclusters does not have a significative influence on the stellar populations. Clusters of galaxies within superclusters are alsoexamined in order to evaluate the influence of the supercluster environment on their galaxy properties. Our results suggest that theenvironment affects galaxy properties but its influence should operate on scales of groups and clusters, more than on the scale of superclusters. © 2012 The Authors.