On the Origin of Faint Intracluster Starlight in Coma

Abstract

Using N-body numerical simulations, we examine possible mechanisms for the origin of the intracluster starlight features recently discovered in the Coma cluster of galaxies. We show that tidal interactions of a ``normal'' elliptical galaxy with a symmetrically distributed dark matter potential do not produce the observed intracluster starlight features. A head-on collision of two normal ellipticals does, however, explain the origin of the intracluster features with surface brightness about 26 mag/arcsec${}^2$). Another possible explanation for the intracluster starlight features is galactic tidal interactions with massive intracluster substructures. The presence of substructures in Coma with a density of $\sim$ 0.1 times the density in the center of the galaxy, and with a total mass about three orders of magnitude larger than the mass of a normal elliptical galaxy, would account for the observations.

11 pages, including 5 figures / to appear in Astrophysical Journal (2001) vol. 548

References in corpus (4)

• Compact groups of galaxies
• Galaxy Disruption as the Origin of Intracluster Light in the Coma Cluster
• The Mass Distribution in the Elliptical Galaxy NGC 3377: Evidence for a 2 x 10**8 Solar Mass Black Hole
• Galaxy Aggregates in the Coma Cluster

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• Intracluster Red Giant Stars in the Virgo Cluster
• A Population of Intergalactic Supernovae in Galaxy Clusters
• Deep CCD Surface Photometry of Galaxy Clusters I: Methods and Initial Studies of Intracluster Starlight
• Intra-group diffuse light in compact groups of galaxies. HCG 79, HCG 88 and HCG 95
• The Kinematics of Intracluster Planetary Nebulae and the On-Going Subcluster Merger in the Coma Cluster Core
• Shrinking of Cluster Ellipticals: a Tidal Stripping explanation and Implications for the Intra-Cluster Light
• The Remnants of Intergalactic Supernovae