The Fornax Deep Survey (FDS) with VST. VI. Optical properties of the
  dwarf galaxies in the Fornax cluster
  The Fornax Deep Survey Dwarf galaxy Catalog (FDSDC) includes 564 dwarf
galaxies in the Fornax cluster and the in-falling Fornax A subgroup. We use the
FDSDC galaxies for statistical analysis of the structural and stellar
population differences in the range of galactic environments within the Fornax
cluster. We present the standard scaling relations for the dwarfs and analyze
trends as a function of cluster-centric radius. We find a different behavior
for the bright dwarfs (-18.5 mag < M$_r$ < -16 mag) as compared to the fainter
ones (M$_r$ > -16 mag): While considering galaxies in the same magnitude-bins,
we find that, while for fainter dwarfs the g'-r' color is redder for lower
surface brightness objects (as expected from fading stellar populations), for
brighter dwarfs the color is redder for the higher surface brightness and
higher S\'ersic n objects. The trend of the bright dwarfs might be explained by
those galaxies being affected by harassment and by slower quenching of star
formation in their inner parts. As the fraction of early-type dwarfs with
respect to late-types increases toward the central parts of the cluster, the
color-surface brightness trends are also manifested in the cluster-centric
trends, confirming that it is indeed the environment that changes the galaxies.
We also estimate the strengths of the ram-pressure stripping, tidal disruption,
and harassment in the Fornax cluster, and find that our observations are
consistent with the theoretically expected ranges of galaxy properties where
each of those mechanisms dominate. We furthermore find that the luminosity
function, color-magnitude relation, and axis-ratio distribution of the dwarfs
in the center of the Fornax cluster are similar to those in the center of the
Virgo cluster.
