Brightest Cluster Galaxies and Intra-Cluster Light: Their Mass Distribution in the Innermost Regions of Groups and Clusters

Abstract

We improve the model presented in Contini & Gu 2020 that describes the radial mass distribution of brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) and the diffuse component also known as intra-cluster light (ICL), by assuming that the global BCG+ICL radial mass distribution follows the sum of three profiles: a Jaffe and an exponential profiles for the bulge and disk of the BCG, respectively, and a modified version of an NFW profile for the ICL. We take advantage of a wide sample of BCG+ICL systems simulated with our state-of-art semi-analytic model to: (a) investigate the reliability of our BCG+ICL distribution by looking at several scaling relations between the BCG+ICL stellar mass within different apertures and the total BCG+ICL/halo mass, at different redshift; (b) make a prediction of the distance where the radial distribution transitions from BCG to ICL dominated. We find that our model nicely reproduces all the observed scaling relations investigated at the present time with a compelling degree of precision, but slightly biased-low with respect to observations at higher redshifts ($z\gtrsim 0.5$). The transition radius predicted by our model is in good agreement with recent observational results, and spans a range between $\sim 15$ kpc and $\sim 100$ kpc. It mostly depends on the morphology of the BCG, whether it is bulge or disk dominated, on the amount of ICL with respect to the bulge and/or disk, and on the dynamical state of the group/cluster.

arXiv comment14 pages, 8 figures. Minor corrections after proof, accepted on ApJ

References in corpus (51)

• A Universal Density Profile from Hierarchical Clustering
• Galactic Stellar and Substellar Initial Mass Function
• Detailed Structural Decomposition of Galaxy Images
• First results from the IllustrisTNG simulations: the stellar mass content of groups and clusters of galaxies
• The First Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• The Growth of Massive Galaxies Since z=2
• The Frontier Fields: Survey Design
• Intracluster Light in Nearby Galaxy Clusters: Relationship to the Halos of Brightest Cluster Galaxies
• Galaxy Cluster Baryon Fractions Revisited
• Stellar mass -- halo mass relation and star formation efficiency in high-mass halos
• The Cluster-EAGLE project: global properties of simulated clusters with resolved galaxies
• Dark Energy Survey Year 1 Results: Weak Lensing Mass Calibration of redMaPPer Galaxy Clusters
• The Hydrangea simulations: galaxy formation in and around massive clusters
• HST/WFC3 Confirmation of the Inside-Out Growth of Massive Galaxies at 0<z<2 and Identification of their Star Forming Progenitors at z~3
• The Burrell Schmidt Deep Virgo Survey: Tidal Debris, Galaxy Halos, and Diffuse Intracluster Light in the Virgo Cluster
• The Fornax Deep Survey with VST. I. The extended and diffuse stellar halo of NGC~1399 out to 192 kpc
• On the formation and physical properties of the Intra-Cluster Light in hierarchical galaxy formation models
• Intracluster stars in simulations with AGN feedback
• Diffuse Optical Light in Galaxy Clusters II: Correlations with Cluster Properties
• Intracluster light and the extended stellar envelopes of cD galaxies: An analytical description
• Intracluster light: a luminous tracer for dark matter in clusters of galaxies
• The Quantity of Intracluster Light: Comparing Theoretical and Observational Measurement Techniques Using Simulated Clusters
• Intracluster Light at the Frontier II: The Frontier Fields Clusters
• Co-evolution of BCGs and ICL using CLASH
• Characterizing Diffused Stellar Light in simulated galaxy clusters
• Dark Energy Survey Year 1 results: Detection of Intra-cluster Light at Redshift $\sim$ 0.25
• Intra Cluster Light properties in the CLASH-VLT cluster MACS J1206.2-0847
• On the Origin of Intracluster Light in Massive Galaxy Clusters
• Characterizing Intra-cluster light in the Hubble Frontier Fields
• Structure of Brightest Cluster Galaxies and Intracluster Light
• The Fornax Deep Survey with VST. VIII. Connecting the accretion history with the cluster density
• The intra-cluster light as a tracer of the total matter density distribution: a view from simulations
• The buildup of the intracluster light of Abell 85 as seen by Subaru's Hyper Suprime-Cam
• Evidence for the inside-out growth of the stellar mass distribution in galaxy clusters since z~1
• The different growth pathways of Brightest Cluster Galaxies and the Intra-Cluster Light
• The baryon content of groups and clusters of galaxies in the FABLE simulations
• Intra-cluster patches of baryons in the core of the Fornax cluster
• The Growth of Brightest Cluster Galaxies and Intracluster Light Over the Past Ten Billion Years
• The Growth of Intracluster Light in XCS-HSC Galaxy Clusters from $0.1<z<0.5$
• Galaxies in X-ray Selected Clusters and Groups in Dark Energy Survey Data I: Stellar Mass Growth of Bright Central Galaxies Since z~1.2
• Theoretical Predictions of Colors and Metallicity of the Intra-Cluster Light
• Diffuse optical intracluster light as a measure of stellar tidal stripping: the cluster CL0024+17 at $z\sim$0.4 observed at LBT
• An Investigation of intra-cluster light evolution using cosmological hydro-dynamical simulations
• Disentangling the ICL with the CHEFs: Abell 2744 as a case study
• Stellar splashback: the edge of the intracluster light
• Stellar Populations of BCGs, Close Companions and Intracluster Light in Abell 85, Abell 2457 and IIZw108
• VEGAS: VST Early-type GAlaxy Survey. V. IC 1459 group: Mass assembly history in low density environments
• Statistics of Substructures in Dark Matter Haloes
• Quantified diffuse light in compact groups of galaxies
• The Inside-out Growth of the Most Massive Galaxies at 0.3<z<0.9
• On the Mass Distribution of the Intra-Cluster Light in Galaxy Groups and Clusters

Cited by in corpus (11)

• Reaching for the Edge I: Probing the Outskirts of Massive Galaxies with HSC, DECaLS, SDSS, and Dragonfly
• Characterising the intra-cluster light in The Three Hundred simulations
• The Transition Region between Brightest Cluster Galaxies and Intra-Cluster Light in Galaxy Groups and Clusters
• Intracluster light in the core of z~2 galaxy proto-clusters
• Machine Learning to identify ICL and BCG in simulated galaxy clusters
• How to Interpret Measurements of Diffuse Light in Stacked Observations of Groups and Clusters of Galaxies
• Dust in Clusters of Galaxies
• Dark Energy Survey Year 6 Results: Intra-Cluster Light from Redshift 0.2 to 0.5
• The intragroup light in KiDS+GAMA groups: A stacking analysis
• Predicting Halo Formation Time Using Machine Learning
• Isophotal signatures of the brightest cluster galaxy - intracluster light transition