Investigating the evolution of galaxy populations in galaxy clusters

In this thesis, the evolution of galaxy populations in 1216 galaxy clusters that have been identified in the 72 sq. deg. CFHTLS-W1 field is investigated between 0.1 < z < 1. ~ 60000 cluster galaxies and ~ 210000 corresponding field galaxies are classified as early-type and late-type galaxies, and red and blue galaxies by using SED-fitting and (u-r) colors. The fractions of populations are computed for each galaxy cluster and corresponding field sample. The fraction of late-type galaxies as a function of redshift (i.e. Butcher - Oemler effect), as a cluster-centric radius (i.e. Morphology - Density relation) and as a function of stellar mass are investigated. The analysis is performed separately for poor and rich clusters to reveal the environmental effects on galaxy evolution. It has shown that late-type galaxy fraction decreases with increasing galaxy mass independently from the environment. The fraction of late-type galaxies as a function of redshift is represented by a power-law function, and the results are shown for both poor and rich clusters. This work uses the largest galaxy cluster sample to derive the evolution of the late-type galaxy fraction amongst studies with similar approaches.