Using the XMM Optical Monitor to Study Cluster Galaxy Evolution
  We explore the application of XMM-Newton Optical Monitor (XMM-OM) ultraviolet
(UV) data to study galaxy evolution. Our sample is constructed as the
intersection of all Abell clusters with z < 0.05 and having archival XMM-OM
data in either the UVM2 or UVW1 filters, plus optical and UV photometry from
the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and GALEX, respectively. The eleven resulting
clusters include 726 galaxies with measured redshifts, 520 of which have
redshifts placing them within their parent Abell clusters. We develop
procedures for manipulating the XMM-OM images and measuring galaxy photometry
from them, and confirm our results via comparison with published catalogs.
Color magnitude diagrams (CMDs) constructed using the XMM-OM data along with
SDSS optical data show promise for evolutionary studies, with good separation
between red and blue sequences and real variation in the width of the red
sequence that is likely indicative of differences in star formation history.
This is particularly true for UVW1 data, as the relative abundance of data
collected using this filter and its depth make it an attractive choice.
Available tools that use stellar synthesis libraries to fit the UV and optical
photometric data may also be used, thereby better describing star formation
history within the past Gyr and providing estimates of total stellar mass that
include contributions from young stars. Finally, color-color diagrams that
include XMM-OM UV data appear useful to the photometric identification of both
extragalactic and stellar sources.
