Environmental Effects on the Dwarf Elliptical Galaxies in the Virgo Cluster

The correlations between the photometric parameters and the environmental parameters for 98 dwarf elliptical galaxies (dE's) in seven 1.5^deg^ x 1.5^deg^ fields in the Virgo Cluster region are investigated. Axial ratio, diameter, magnitude, mean surface brightness, and concentration index taken from homogeneous surface photometry are adopted as the photometric parameters, and projected distance from the cluster center, projected distance from the nearest bright galaxy, and projected local number density of galaxies are adopted as the environmental parameters. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test is applied to investigate the statistical significance of the correlations on the assumption that all the sample dE's are located at the same distance. The following results are obtained: (1) dE's in the central region (r<=5^deg^) of the Virgo Cluster have larger diameters and brighter magnitudes than those in the outer region (r>=5^deg^). (2) The photometric parameters have no significant correlations with either the distance from the nearest bright galaxy or the local number density of galaxies. Implications of these results on the scenarios of the formation and evolution of dE's are discussed.