Evolution of the blue luminosity-to-baryon mass ratio of clusters of galaxies

We derive the ratio of the total blue luminosity to the total baryon mass, L-B/M-b1 for massive (M-gas at the Abell radius is > 1 x 10(13)h(-2.5) M-.) clusters of galaxies up to z similar or equal to 1 from the literature. Tw enty-two clusters in our sample are at z > 0.1. Assuming that the relative mix of hot gas and galaxies in clusters does not change during cluster evol ution, we use L-B/M-b to probe the star-formation history of the galaxy pop ulation as a whole in clusters. We find that L-B/M-b of clusters increases with redshift from L-B/M-b = 0.024 (L-B/M). at z = 0 to similar or equal to 0.06 (L-B/M). at z = 1, indicating a factor of 2-3 brightening (we assume H-0 = 70 km s(-1) Mpc(-1)). This amount of brightening is almost identical to the brightening of the MILE ratio of early-type galaxies in clusters at 0.02 less than or equal to z less than or equal to 0.83 reported by van Dok kum et al. (1998, AAA 70.160.065). We compare the observed brightening of L -B/M-b with luminosity evolution models for the galaxy population as a whol e, changing the e-folding time of star formation, tau, by 0.1 less than or equal to tau less than or equal to 5 Gyr and the formation redshift, z(F), by 2 less than or equal to z(F) < infinity. We find that tau = 0.1 Gyr for 'single burst' models with z(F) greater than or equal to 3 and tau = 5 Gyr for 'disk' models with arbitrary z(F) are consistent with the observed brig htening, while models with tau = 1-2 Gyr tend to predict brightening that i s too steep. We also derive the ratio of the blue luminosity density to the baryon density for field galaxies, adopting Omega(b)h(2) = 0.02, and find that the blue luminosity per unit baryon is similar in clusters and in fiel ds up to z similar or equal to 1 within the observational uncertainties.