Abstract

We report an analysis of the dynamical structure of clusters of galaxies from a survey of photometric and spectroscopic observations in the fields of southern Abell clusters. We analyze the galaxy velocity field in extended regions up to 7 h-1 Mpc from cluster centers, and we estimate mean velocity dispersions and their radial dependence. Only one from a total of 41 Abell clusters does not correspond to a dynamically bound system. However, four of these bound objects are double clusters. We estimate that 20% (seven clusters) of the 35 remaining are subject to serious projection effects. Normalizing the clustercentric distances by means of the overdensity radius r200, and the velocity dispersion profiles (VDPs) by the corresponding mean cluster velocity dispersion, we computed the average VDP. Our results indicate a flat behavior of the mean VDP at large distances from the cluster center. Nevertheless, we found that for the inner part of the clusters (r/r200 ? 1) the VDP is up to 10% smaller than at larger radii.