Quantifying galactic morphological transformations in the cluster environment.

We study the effects of the cluster environment on galactic morphology by defining a dimensionless angular momentum parameter, , to obtain a quantitative and objective measure of galaxy type. The use of this physical parameter allows us to take the study of morphological transformations in clusters beyond the measurements of merely qualitative parameters, e.g. spiral/elliptical (S/E) ratios, to a more physical footing. To this end, we employ an extensive Sloan Digital Sky Survey sample (Data Release 7) with galaxies associated with Abell galaxy clusters. The sample contains 121 relaxed Abell clusters and over 51 000 individual galaxies, which guarantees a thorough statistical coverage over a wide range of physical parameters. We find that the median value tends to decrease as we approach the cluster centre, with different dependences according to the mass of the galaxies and the hosting cluster; low- and intermediate-mass galaxies show a strong dependence, while massive galaxies seem to show, at all radii, low values. By analysing trends in as functions of the nearest neighbour environment, clustercentric radius and velocity dispersion of clusters, we can identify clearly the leading physical processes at work. We find that in massive clusters ( km s), the interaction with the cluster central region dominates, whilst in smaller clusters galaxy-galaxy interactions are chiefly responsible for driving galactic morphological transformations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]