At the heart of every galaxy cluster is the brightest central galaxy (BCG). The central location of the BCG along with its unique formation history yield the underlying galaxy-dark matter halo connection. This statistical correlation allows us to enhance our understanding of the assembly and evolution of BCGs over cosmic time. However, we gain further insight into the formation and evolution of BCGs as well as that of the clusters they live in by taking advantage of all available data that exists within the cluster, namely the (1) intracluster light and (2) satellite galaxy population. Here, I present results from two recent papers. The first focuses on using clusters from the DES-ACT overlap region to study the evolution of the stellar properties (mass and color) of the ICL over the redshift range 0.20 < z < 0.80. In this analysis, we also use the ICL to enhance our measurement of the galaxy – halo connection. The second project focuses on using the conditional luminosity function (CLF) to characterize the satellite populations within clusters. However, because clusters and the associated cosmology rely on our choice of cluster finder, we investigate whether any bias exists between clusters identified using either the redMaPPer or Yang cluster finders. In this analysis, we directly compare the CLFs and the weak gravitational lensing measurements as a function of richness and for clusters cross-identified within both catalogues.
BIO
Jesse received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, where he worked with Prof. Chris Miller. Jesse is currently a postdoctoral fellow at SJTU working with Prof. Ying Zu. In the fall, Jesse will move to The University of Nottingham as a Senior Research Associate working with Dr. Nina Hatch to study the formation of the ICL using Euclid. Jesse’s research expertise is in the formation and evolution of brightest central galaxies and galaxy populations in cluster environments and the statistical methods used to address these questions. To advance our understanding of the hierarchical assembly of these galaxies, Jesse has used the stellar mass-halo mass relation along with the magnitude gap, the conditional luminosity function, measurements of the faint intracluster light, and weak gravitational lensing.
Host: Emmet Golden-Marx
