Diffuse Light in Galaxy Clusters

Abstract

Diffuse intracluster light (ICL) has now been observed in nearby and in intermediate redshift clusters. Individual intracluster stars have been detected in the Virgo and Coma clusters and the first color-magnitude diagram and velocity measurements have been obtained. Recent studies show that the ICL contains of the order of 10% and perhaps up to 30% of the stellar mass in the cluster, but in the cores of some dense and rich clusters like Coma, the local ICL fraction can be high as 40%-50%. What can we learn from the ICL about the formation of galaxy clusters and the evolution of cluster galaxies? How and when did the ICL form? What is the connection to the central brightest cluster galaxy? Cosmological N-body and hydrodynamical simulations are beginning to make predictions for the kinematics and origin of the ICL. The ICL traces the evolution of baryonic substructures in dense environments and can thus be used to constrain some aspects of cosmological simulations that are most uncertain, such as the modeling of star formation and the mass distribution of the baryonic component in galaxies.

14 pages, 4 figures, to appear on "Highlights of Astronomy, Vol. 15, XXVIIth IAU general Assembly, August 2009, Ian F. Corbett, ed."

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Cited by in corpus (6)

• The Burrell Schmidt Deep Virgo Survey: Tidal Debris, Galaxy Halos, and Diffuse Intracluster Light in the Virgo Cluster
• Intra-cluster patches of baryons in the core of the Fornax cluster
• Star-formation efficiency and metal enrichment of the intracluster medium in local massive clusters of galaxies
• An Investigation of intra-cluster light evolution using cosmological hydro-dynamical simulations
• Intracluster Light Properties in a Fossil Cluster at z=0.47
• Kinematics of the diffuse intragroup and intracluster light in groups and clusters of galaxies in the Local Universe within 100 Mpc distance