The Sphere of Influence of the Bright Central Galaxies in the Diffuse Light of SDSS Clusters

Abstract

The bright central galaxies (BCGs) dominate the inner portion of the diffuse cluster light, but it is still unclear where the intracluster light (ICL) takes over. To investigate the BCG-ICL transition, we stack the images of $\sim 3000$ clusters between $0.2<z<0.3$ in the SDSS $gri$ bands, and measure their BCG+ICL stellar surface mass profile ${\Sigma }_{\ast }^{\text{B+I}}$ down to $3\times 10^4{M}_{\odot }/{\mathrm{kpc}}^2$ at $R\simeq 1\mathrm{Mpc}$ ($\sim 32$ mag/arcsec${}^2$ in the $r$-band). We develop a physically-motivated method to decompose ${\Sigma }_{\ast }^{\text{B+I}}$ into three components, including an inner de Vaucouleurs' profile, an outer ICL that follows the dark matter distribution measured from weak lensing, and an intriguing transitional component between 70 and 200 kpc. To investigate the origin of this transition, we split the clusters into two subsamples by their BCG stellar mass $M_{\ast }^{\mathrm{BCG}}$ (mass enclosed roughly within 50 kpc) while making sure they have the same distribution of satellite richness. The ${\Sigma }_{\ast }^{\text{B+I}}$ profiles of the two subsamples differ by more than a factor of two at $R<50\mathrm{kpc}$, consistent with their 0.34 dex difference in $M_{\ast }^{\mathrm{BCG}}$, whereas on scales beyond 400 kpc the two profiles converge to the same amplitudes, suggesting a satellite-stripping origin of the outer ICL. Remarkably, however, the discrepancy between the two ${\Sigma }_{\ast }^{\text{B+I}}$ profiles persist at above $50\%$ level on all scales below 200 kpc, thereby revealing the BCG sphere of influence with radius $R_{\mathrm{SOI}}\simeq$ 200 kpc. Finally, we speculate that the surprisingly large sphere of influence of the BCG is tied to the elevated escape velocity profile within $r_s$, the characteristic radius of the dark matter haloes.

arXiv comment16 pages, 13 figures; Matched to the version accepted by MNRAS

References in corpus (76)

• Planck 2015 results. XIII. Cosmological parameters
• The Sloan Digital Sky Survey: Technical Summary
• A Universal Density Profile from Hierarchical Clustering
• LSST: from Science Drivers to Reference Design and Anticipated Data Products
• Overview of the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys
• The Eighth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: First Data from SDSS-III
• redMaPPer I: Algorithm and SDSS DR8 Catalog
• A MaxBCG Catalog of 13,823 Galaxy Clusters from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• Improved background subtraction for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey images
• Diffuse Light in the Virgo Cluster
• The redMaPPer Galaxy Cluster Catalog From DES Science Verification Data
• Evolution of the Galaxy - Dark Matter Connection and the Assembly of Galaxies in Dark Matter Halos
• Intracluster Light in Nearby Galaxy Clusters: Relationship to the Halos of Brightest Cluster Galaxies
• Stellar mass -- halo mass relation and star formation efficiency in high-mass halos
• The massive end of the luminosity and stellar mass functions: Dependence on the fit to the light profile
• Cosmology from the Chinese Space Station Optical Survey (CSS-OS)
• The Importance of Mergers for the Origin of Intracluster Stars in Cosmological Simulations of Galaxy Clusters
• Shredded Galaxies as the Source of Diffuse Intrahalo Light On Varying Scales
• Modeling the color evolution of luminous red galaxies - improvements with empirical stellar spectra
• Mapping stellar content to dark matter halos using galaxy clustering and galaxy-galaxy lensing in the SDSS DR7
• On the formation and physical properties of the Intra-Cluster Light in hierarchical galaxy formation models
• Intracluster stars in simulations with AGN feedback
• The Formation and Evolution of Intracluster Light
• Diffuse Optical Light in Galaxy Clusters II: Correlations with Cluster Properties
• redMaPPer II: X-ray and SZ Performance Benchmarks for the SDSS Catalog
• Intracluster light and the extended stellar envelopes of cD galaxies: An analytical description
• What determines satellite galaxy disruption?
• The Origin and Properties of Intracluster Stars in a Rich Cluster
• Intracluster light: a luminous tracer for dark matter in clusters of galaxies
• Deep CCD Surface Photometry of Galaxy Clusters II: Searching for Intracluster Starlight in non-cD clusters
• 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
• Determination of the Dark Matter Profile of Abell 2199 from Integrated Starlight
• EzGal: A Flexible Interface for Stellar Population Synthesis Models
• Tidal Streams of Intracluster Light
• Characterizing Diffused Stellar Light in simulated galaxy clusters
• Evolution of the Most Massive Galaxies to z=0.6: I. A New Method for Physical Parameter Estimation
• On the Level of Cluster Assembly Bias in SDSS
• The ongoing assembly of a central cluster galaxy: Phase-space substructures in the halo of M87
• Dark Energy Survey Year 1 results: Detection of Intra-cluster Light at Redshift $\sim$ 0.25
• Lost but not Forgotten: Intracluster Light in Galaxy Groups and Clusters
• Intra-Cluster Light at the Frontier: Abell 2744
• An Extended Halo-based Group/Cluster finder: application to the DESI legacy imaging surveys DR8
• The Cluster Velocity Dispersion of the Abell 2199 cD Halo of NGC 6166
• 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
• The faint stellar halos of massive red galaxies from stacks of more than 42000 SDSS LRG images
• Measurement of the intracluster light at z ~ 1
• Properties of Intra-group Stars and Galaxies in Galaxy Groups: "Normal" versus "Fossil" Groups
• Dynamical difference between the cD galaxy and the stellar diffuse component in simulated galaxy clusters
• The high mass end of the stellar mass function: Dependence on stellar population models and agreement between fits to the light profile
• The MASSIVE Survey - VIII. Stellar Velocity Dispersion Profiles and Environmental Dependence of Early-Type Galaxies
• The Sloan Digital Sky Survey extended point spread functions
• The Luminosity Profiles of Brightest Cluster Galaxies
• 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
• Unveiling the dynamical state of massive clusters through the ICL fraction
• The outer regions of the giant Virgo galaxy M87. Kinematic separation of stellar halo and intracluster light
• The edge of the M87 halo and the kinematics of the diffuse light in the Virgo cluster core
• Galaxy Clusters from the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys. I. Cluster Detection
• The different growth pathways of Brightest Cluster Galaxies and the Intra-Cluster Light
• Photometric dissection of Intracluster Light and its correlations with host cluster properties
• The Growth of Intracluster Light in XCS-HSC Galaxy Clusters from $0.1<z<0.5$
• Is diffuse intracluster light a good tracer of the galaxy cluster matter distribution?
• Theoretical Predictions of Colors and Metallicity of the Intra-Cluster Light
• The Fate of Dwarf Galaxies in Clusters and the Origin of Intracluster Stars. II. Cosmological Simulations
• Photometric redshifts for galaxies in the Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam and unWISE and a catalogue of identified clusters of galaxies
• An Investigation of intra-cluster light evolution using cosmological hydro-dynamical simulations
• The Fornax Cluster VLT Spectroscopic Survey II - Planetary Nebulae kinematics within 200 kpc of the cluster core
• Intergalactic stellar populations in intermediate redshift clusters
• Does Concentration Drive the Scatter in the Stellar-to-Halo Mass Relation of Galaxy Clusters?
• The stellar halo of isolated central galaxies in the Hyper Suprime-Cam imaging survey
• On the Mass Distribution of the Intra-Cluster Light in Galaxy Groups and Clusters
• Chandra Follow-Up of the SDSS DR8 redMaPPer Catalog Using the MATCha Pipeline

Cited by in corpus (16)

• \textsc{The Three Hundred} project: The \textsc{Gizmo-Simba} run
• Characterising the intra-cluster light in The Three Hundred simulations
• Characterising the Intracluster Light over the Redshift Range $0.2<z<0.8$ in the DES-ACT Overlap
• The formation of the brightest cluster galaxy and intracluster light in cosmological N-body simulations with the Galaxy Replacement Technique
• The Jiao Tong University Spectroscopic Telescope Project
• Intracluster light is a biased tracer of the dark matter distribution in clusters
• Euclid preparation LXX. Forecasting detection limits for intracluster light in the Euclid Wide Survey
• CURLING -- II. Improvement on the $H_0$ Inference from Pixelized Cluster Strong Lens Modeling
• Memoirs of mass accretion: probing the edges of intracluster light in simulated galaxy clusters
• Satellite Content and Halo Mass of Galaxy Clusters: Comparison between Red-Sequence and Halo-based Optical Cluster Finders
• The SRG/eROSITA All-Sky Survey. The Weak-Lensing Mass Calibration and the Stellar Mass-to-Halo Mass Relation from the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program
• Dark Energy Survey Year 6 Results: Intra-Cluster Light from Redshift 0.2 to 0.5
• Predicting Halo Formation Time Using Machine Learning
• The origin of the intra-cluster light in The Three Hundred simulations
• The $10\mathrm{kpc}$ collar of early-type galaxies -- probing evolution by focusing on the inner stellar density profile
• Isophotal signatures of the brightest cluster galaxy - intracluster light transition