A NONPARAMETRIC ANALYSIS OF THE LUMINOSITY FUNCTION OF CLUSTER GALAXIES

Photographic F band photometry of a sample of 36 Abell clusters, has b een used to study possible systematic differences between the luminosi ty functions of galaxies belonging to clusters of different Rood & Sas try type. A Kolmogorov-Smirnov two-sample test shows that the average luminosity functions of clusters of various type differ in a statistic ally significant way. In particular core and linear clusters appears i ntermediate between cD and flat or irregular clusters. Our results app ear consistent with the cannibalism model, where the luminosity functi on evolves through a merging process which affects preferentially the bright end of their luminosity function.