Distribution of merging and post-merging galaxies in nearby galaxy clusters

We study the incidence and spatial distribution of galaxies that are currently undergoing gravitational merging (M) or that have signs of a post merger (PM) in six galaxy clusters (A754, A2399, A2670, A3558, A3562, and A3716) within the redshift range, 0.05z0.08. To this aim, we obtained Dark Energy Camera (DECam) mosaics in u^, g^, and r^-bands covering up to 3× R₂₀₀ of the clusters, reaching 28 mag/arcsec² surface brightness limits. We visually inspect u^g^{}r^ color-composite images of volume-limited (Mᵣ < -20) cluster-member galaxies to identify whether galaxies are of M or PM types. We find 4% M-type and 7% PM-type galaxies in the galaxy clusters studied. By adding spectroscopic data and studying the projected phase space diagram (PPSD) of the projected clustocentric radius and the line-of-sight velocity, we find that PM-type galaxies are more virialized than M-type galaxies, having 1--5% point higher fraction within the escape-velocity region, while the fraction of M-type was ~10% point higher than PM-type in the intermediate environment. Similarly, on a substructure analysis, M types were found in the outskirt groups, while PM types populated groups in ubiquitous regions of the PPSD. Adopting literature-derived dynamical state indicator values, we observed a higher abundance of M types in dynamically relaxed clusters. This finding suggests that galaxies displaying post-merging features within clusters likely merged in low-velocity environments, including cluster outskirts and dynamically relaxed clusters.