The Near-IR Luminosity Function and Bimodal Surface Brightness
  Distribution of Virgo Cluster Galaxies
  We have acquired deep, H-band, imaging for a sample of 286 Virgo cluster
galaxies with B <= 16 mag and extracted surface photometry from optical g,r,i,z
Sloan Digital Sky Survey images of 742 Virgo Cluster Catalog galaxies,
including those with H-band images. We confirm the detection of a dip in the
luminosity function indicative of a discontinuity in the cluster galaxy
population; the dip is more pronounced at redder wavelengths. We find, in
agreement with earlier works of Tully & Verheijen and ours for Ursa Major
cluster galaxies, a clear dichotomy between high and low surface brightness
galaxy disks. The difference between the low and high brightness peaks of Virgo
disk galaxies is ~2 H-mag arcsec^-2, significantly larger than any systematic
errors. The high surface brightness disk galaxies have two distinct classes of
high and low concentration bulges, while low surface brightness galaxies have
only low concentration bulges. Early-type galaxies exhibit a similar structural
bimodality though offset from that of the spiral galaxies towards higher
surface brightnesses. Both the early- and late-type structural bimodalities are
uncorrelated with colour or any other structural parameter except, possibly,
circular velocity. The structural bimodality may be linked to dynamical
properties of galaxies. Low angular momentum systems may collapse to form
dynamically important disks with high surface brightness, while high angular
momentum systems would end up as low surface brightness galaxies dominated by
the dark halo at all radii. The confirmation of structural bimodality for
gas-rich and gas-poor galaxies in the high-density Virgo cluster as well as the
low-density UMa cluster suggests that this phenomenon is independent of
environment.
