Diffuse Tidal Structures in the Halos of Virgo Ellipticals

Abstract

We use deep V-band surface photometry of five of the brightest elliptical galaxies in the Virgo cluster to search for diffuse tidal streams, shells, and plumes in their outer halos (r > 50 kpc). We fit and subtract elliptical isophotal models from the galaxy images to reveal a variety of substructure, with surface brightnesses in the range mu_V= 26-29 mag/arcsec^2. M49 possesses an extended, interleaved shell system reminiscent of the radial accretion of a satellite companion, while M89's complex system of shells and plumes suggests a more complicated accretion history involving either multiple events or a major merger. M87 has a set of long streamers as might be expected from stripping of low luminosity dwarfs on radial orbits in Virgo. M86 also displays a number of small streams indicative of stripping of dwarf companions, but these comprise much less luminosity than those of M87. Only M84 lacks significant tidal features. We quantify the photometric properties of these structures, and discuss their origins in the context of each galaxy's environment and kinematics within the Virgo cluster.

16 pages, 6 figures; Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal (Note: The figures in this astro-ph version are recommended over those published in the ApJ.)

References in corpus (10)

• The Formation and Evolution of Intracluster Light
• Intracluster light and the extended stellar envelopes of cD galaxies: An analytical description
• A Spectacular H$\alpha$ Complex in Virgo: Evidence for a Collision Between M86 and NGC 4438 and Implications for Collisional ISM Heating of Ellipticals
• The Metallicity Distribution of Intracluster Stars in Virgo
• Spectacular Shells in the Host Galaxy of the QSO MC2 1635+119
• Detection of a Large Scale Structure of Intracluster Globular Clusters in the Virgo Cluster
• Extended Red Emission in High-Galactic Latitude Interstellar Clouds
• The Globular Cluster System of M60 (NGC 4649). II. Kinematics of the Globular Cluster System
• Evidence for tidal interaction and merger as the origin of galaxy morphology evolution in compact groups
• Diffuse far-infrared and ultraviolet emission in the NGC4435/4438 system: tidal stream or Galactic cirrus?

Cited by in corpus (92)

• The Atlas3D project -- XXIX. The new look of early-type galaxies and surrounding fields disclosed by extremely deep optical images
• The Burrell Schmidt Deep Virgo Survey: Tidal Debris, Galaxy Halos, and Diffuse Intracluster Light in the Virgo Cluster
• The SAGES Legacy Unifying Globulars and GalaxieS Survey (SLUGGS): Sample definition, methods, and initial results
• The Fornax Deep Survey with VST. I. The extended and diffuse stellar halo of NGC~1399 out to 192 kpc
• Wide-Field Precision Kinematics of the M87 Globular Cluster System
• The Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey. VIII. The Spatial Distribution of Globular Clusters in the Virgo Cluster
• The Quantity of Intracluster Light: Comparing Theoretical and Observational Measurement Techniques Using Simulated Clusters
• Dynamical friction and the evolution of Supermassive Black hole Binaries: the final hundred-parsec problem
• The ongoing assembly of a central cluster galaxy: Phase-space substructures in the halo of M87
• The Atlas-3D project - IX. The merger origin of a fast and a slow rotating Early-Type Galaxy revealed with deep optical imaging: first results
• Optical Colors of Intracluster Light in the Virgo Cluster Core
• The Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey. VI. The Kinematics of Ultra-compact Dwarfs and Globular Clusters in M87
• Formation and Incidence of Shell Galaxies in the Illustris Simulation
• Tidal debris morphology and the orbits of satellite galaxies
• VEGAS: A VST Early-type GAlaxy Survey. I. Presentation, wide-field surface photometry, and substructures in NGC 4472
• The Progenitors of Local Ultra-massive Galaxies Across Cosmic Time: from Dusty Star-bursting to Quiescent Stellar Populations
• The Fornax Deep Survey with VST. II. Fornax A: a two-phase assembly caught on act
• The PN.S Elliptical Galaxy Survey: a standard LCDM halo around NGC 4374?
• VEGAS: A VST Early-type GAlaxy Survey. II. Photometric study of giant ellipticals and their stellar halos
• Probing the merger history of red early-type galaxies with their faint stellar substructures
• The Fornax3D project: overall goals, galaxy sample, MUSE data analysis and initial results
• A tale of two tails and an off-centered envelope: diffuse light around the cD galaxy NGC 3311 in the Hydra I cluster
• Tracing Galaxies Through Cosmic Time with Number Density Selection
• Exploring the Properties of the M31 Halo Globular Cluster System
• Morphology and environment of galaxies with disc breaks in the S4G and NIRS0S
• Stripped gas as fuel for newly formed HII regions in the encounter between VCC1249 and M49: a unified picture from NGVS and GUViCS
• The Fornax Deep Survey with VST. V. Exploring the faintest regions of the bright early-type galaxies inside the virial radius
• The Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey. X. Properties of Ultra-Compact Dwarfs in the M87, M49 and M60 Regions
• Formation of S0 galaxies through mergers. Morphological properties: tidal relics, lenses, ovals, and other inner components
• Formation of S0 galaxies through mergers. Bulge-disc structural coupling resulting from major mergers
• The extended Planetary Nebula Spectrograph (ePN.S) early-type galaxy survey. The kinematic diversity of stellar halos and the relation between halo transition scale and stellar mass
• The outer regions of the giant Virgo galaxy M87. Kinematic separation of stellar halo and intracluster light
• Beyond Ellipse(s): Accurately Modelling the Isophotal Structure of Galaxies with $Isofit$ and $Cmodel$
• The Next Generation Virgo cluster Survey. V. modelling the dynamics of M87 with the Made-to-Measure method
• Tidal streams around galaxies in the SDSS DR7 archive
• The stellar halos of ETGs in the IllustrisTNG simulations: the photometric and kinematic diversity of galaxies at large radii
• Recoiling Supermassive Black Holes: a search in the Nearby Universe
• Searching for diffuse light in the M96 Group
• Intracluster supernovae in the Multi-epoch Nearby Cluster Survey
• Intra-cluster patches of baryons in the core of the Fornax cluster
• The Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey. IV. NGC 4216: A Bombarded Spiral in the Virgo Cluster
• Early type galaxies with tidal debris and their scaling relations in the Spitzer Survey of Stellar Structure in Galaxies (S4G)
• Euclid preparation: XVI. Exploring the ultra low-surface brightness Universe with Euclid/VIS
• The Fornax Cluster VLT Spectroscopic Survey II - Planetary Nebulae kinematics within 200 kpc of the cluster core
• Stellar Populations in the Outer Halo of the Massive Elliptical M49
• The Outer Halo of the Nearest Giant Elliptical: A VLT/VIMOS Survey of the Resolved Stellar Populations in Centaurus A to 85 kpc
• The Red and Featureless Outer Disks of Nearby Spiral Galaxies
• The kinematics of the outer halo of M87 as mapped by planetary nebulae
• Dynamical Models of Elliptical Galaxies -- II. M87 and its Globular Clusters
• The Zurich Environmental Study (ZENS) of Galaxies in Groups along the Cosmic Web. II. Galaxy Structural Measurements and the Concentration of Morphologically Classified Satellites in Diverse Environments
• The Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey (NGVS) XXXI. The kinematics of intra-cluster globular clusters in the core of the Virgo cluster
• A Deconvolution Technique to Correct Deep Images of Galaxies from Instrumental Scattered Light
• The Environmental Dependence of the Incidence of Galactic Tidal Features
• The Globular Cluster Systems of Abell 1185
• The halo of M49 and its environment as traced by planetary nebulae
• Three dynamically distinct stellar populations in the halo of M49
• Globular Cluster Systems and their Host Galaxies: Comparison of Spatial Distributions and Colors
• The Rising Stellar Velocity Dispersion of M87 from Integrated Starlight
• Characterising the intra-cluster light in The Three Hundred simulations
• On the varied origins of up-bending breaks in galaxy disks
• The Two-Dimensional Spatial Distributions of the Globular Clusters and Low-Mass X-Ray Binaries of NGC4649
• The complex case of MACSJ0717.5+3745 and its extended filament: intra-cluster light, galaxy luminosity function, and galaxy orientations
• The formation of the brightest cluster galaxy and intracluster light in cosmological N-body simulations with the Galaxy Replacement Technique
• The halo of M105 and its group environment as traced by planetary nebula populations: I. Wide-field photometric survey of planetary nebulae in the Leo I group
• HI observations of the MATLAS dwarf and ultra-diffuse galaxies
• Stellar Populations in the Outer Disk and Halo of the Spiral Galaxy M101
• Intragroup and Intracluster Light
• H-ATLAS/GAMA and HeViCS - Dusty Early-Type Galaxies in Different Environments
• Massive Early-Type Galaxies in the HSC-SSP: Flux Fraction of Tidal Features and Merger Rates
• A multiwavelength survey of HI-excess galaxies with surprisingly inefficient star formation
• Spatial Structures In the Globular Cluster Distribution of the Ten Brightest Virgo Galaxies
• Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey (NGVS). XXXII:~Search for a Globular Cluster Substructure in the Virgo Galaxy Cluster Core
• Detection of Prominent Stellar Disks in the Progenitors of Present-day Massive Elliptical Galaxies
• Remnants of recent mergers in nearby early-type galaxies and their classification
• Spitzer IRAC Low Surface Brightness Observations of the Virgo Cluster
• The Galaxy Replacement Technique (GRT): a New Approach to Study Tidal Stripping and Formation of Intracluster Light in a Cosmological Context
• Tidal features and disc thicknesses of edge-on galaxies in the SDSS Stripe 82
• Ubiquitous signs of interactions in early-type galaxies with prolate rotation
• Low Surface Brightness structures from annotated deep CFHT images: effects of the host galaxy's properties and environment
• Resolved Stellar Populations as Tracers of Outskirts
• The Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey. XXXIII. Stellar Population Gradients in the Virgo Cluster Core Globular Cluster System
• Substructure in the Globular Cluster Populations of the Virgo Cluster Elliptical Galaxies M84 and M86
• Toward Astrometric Constraints on a Supermassive Black Hole Binary in the Early-Type Galaxy NGC\,4472
• Fresh Insights on the Kinematics of M49's Globular Cluster System with MMT/Hectospec Spectroscopy
• A newly identified galaxy group thanks to tidal streams of intragroup light
• Chandra view of Abell 407: the central compact group of galaxies and the interaction between the radio AGN and the ICM
• An excess of low-mass X-ray binaries in the outer halo of NGC 4472
• Multiscale exploration of SMACS J0723.3--7327's intracluster light and past dynamical history
• Deep photometry of galaxies in the VEGAS survey: the case of NGC 4472
• Faint dwarf galaxies in the Next Generation Virgo cluster Survey
• The origin of the intra-cluster light in The Three Hundred simulations
• The Stellar Initial Mass Function and Population Properties of M89 from Optical and NIR Spectroscopy: Addressing Biases in Spectral Index Analysis