Abstract
We have studied a sample of 50 galaxy clusters, all with more than 100 spectroscopically confirmed member galaxies, from all Bautz-Morgan types, in order to determine the importance of the brightest cluster members (BCMs) and their relation to the structure and dynamical state of their host clusters. Strict tests for membership and for the presence of substructures were applied. Near-infrared data were used for photometry and astrometry, which allowed us to rank the member galaxies in order of their stellar mass content. The large spectroscopic sampling, the broad range of morphologies, masses and intra-cluster medium properties, beyond the improved analyses for membership and substructuring, make this sample an especially suitable reference of nearby optical clusters (0.005 < z < 0.150) for the study of cluster evolution and environment effects on member galaxies. Only 35% of the clusters revealed to be unimodal, 50% to be substructured and other 15% to be multi-modal. Also, for about 20% of the sample, the Central Dominant Galaxy (CDG) of the main structure is not the first-ranked BCM, but the CDG of a substructure. More massive clusters present more than one dominant galaxy, while the less massive ones present only one, if any. This correlation goes in the sense that most of the evolution of CDGs occurs in groups that are doomed to merge and form clusters.
