Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Jan 2010
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010aas...21537803r&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #215, #378.03; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 42, p.587
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
We have used both N-body simulations of galaxy clusters, as well as direct observations of the Virgo cluster to study the diffuse, low-surface brightness intracluster starlight (ICL, or intracluster light) that pervades galaxy clusters. Simulations suggest that the tidal fields generated by close interactions between massive galaxies and groups within the cluster strip stellar material out of galaxies and are the primary driver of ICL formation. While at least 40% of the ICL is generated in the form of massive, dynamically cold streams, at z=0 only 5% of the ICL is found in such features due to dynamical mixing in the evolving cluster potential. Additionally, we find that various commonly used measurement criteria for ICL can differ by up to 50% in the amount of ICL they find in a given cluster, making measurements of the total quantity of ICL highly uncertain. Observationally, our ultra-deep photometric survey of the Virgo cluster has revealed a vast web of low-surface brightness tidal debris, including numerous streams, plumes, and shells. We find that ICL features tend to have B-V colors similar to the outskirts of the giant elliptical galaxies, indicating that the ICL formed primarily from tidal stripping of material from these outer galactic regions, or from low-mass, low-metallicity galaxies with similar colors. Together, this data suggests the ICL can be used as a powerful tracer of the dynamical evolution of galaxy clusters and their constituent galaxies.
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