Abstract

We present the first colour-magnitude relation (CMR) of early-type galaxies in the central region of the Antlia cluster, obtained from CCD wide-field photometry in the Washington photometric system. Integrated (C - T1) colours, T1 magnitudes, and effective radii have been measured for 93 galaxies (i.e. the largest galaxies sample in the Washington system till now) from the FS90 Antlia Group catalogue. Membership of 37 objects can be confirmed through new radial velocities and data collected from the literature. The resulting colour-magnitude diagram shows that early-type FS90 galaxies that are spectroscopically confirmed Antlia members or that were considered as definite members by FS90, follow a well-defined CMR that spans 9 mag in brightness with no apparent change of slope. This relation is very tight for the whole magnitude range but S0 galaxies show a larger dispersion, apparently due to a separation of ellipticals and S0s. Antlia displays a slope of -13.6 in a T1 versus (C - T1) diagram, in agreement with results for clusters like Fornax, Virgo, Coma and Perseus, which are dynamically different to Antlia. This fact might indicate that the build-up of the CMR in cluster of galaxies is more related to galaxies internal processes than to the influence of the environment. Interpreting the CMR as a luminosity-metallicity relation of old stellar systems, the metallicities of the Antlia galaxies define a global relation down to MV ≈ -13. We also find, for early-type dwarfs, no clear relation between luminosity and effective radius, indicating a nearly constant mean effective radius of ∼1 kpc. This value is also found in several samples of dwarf galaxies in Virgo and Coma. © 2008 RAS.