Invited Presentation

Galaxy populations in the most distant SPT-SZ clusters: the evolution of galaxies in the first massive cluster environments

Author(s): Veronica Strazzullo (LMU-München)

Presenter: Veronica Strazzullo (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München)

We present recent results from a study investigating galaxy populations in high-redshift massive clusters identified in the SPT-SZ survey. SPT-SZ identified clusters over 2500 square degrees with an approximately redshift-independent mass threshold of ~4e+14Msun from z~0.2 out to the highest redshifts where these structures exist. We focus on the most distant of these clusters, a sample of 5 systems at 1.4<~z<~1.7 among the rarest, most massive clusters known at these redshifts. Because of their selection completely independent of their galaxies, these structures are particularly well suited for galaxy evolution investigations. In the context of the many studies of galaxy population properties in distant clusters, we present here results based on dedicated HST and Spitzer observations of this cluster sample, focusing on environmental quenching and structural evolution of galaxies in the first massive cluster environments.