H-alpha Imaging Survey of Low-Redshift Cluster Dwarf Galaxies

We describe our on-going H-alpha imaging survey to measure the star formation activity of dwarf galaxies selected from a sample of low-redshift (0.02 < z< 0.15) galaxy clusters using the KPNO 4-meter telescope+Mosaic camera. H-alpha observations are obtained using the narrow-band BATC filters centered on the redshifted H-alpha emission line. The continuum-subtracted H-alpha images allow us to constrain star formation rates via the correlation between star formation and H-alpha luminosity and equivalent width. The impact of the cluster environment can be quantified using radial-dependent measures of the star formation rate within individual clusters, and by comparing clusters within our sample on a cluster-to-cluster basis. Comparison of our H-alpha measurements to CFHT u-band imaging data of our cluster sample, permits us to explore the correlation between the UV continuum and H-alpha emission of the dwarf galaxy population. The goal of our survey is to further understand the mechanism that is responsible for the enhancement/quenching of star formation as dwarf galaxies fall into the galaxy cluster environment.