Quantifying the origin and distribution of intracluster Light in a Fornax-Like Cluster

Harris, Kathryn A.; Debattista, Victor P.; Governato, Fabio; Thompson, Benjamin B.; Clarke, Adam J.; Quinn, Thomas; Willman, Beth; Benson, Andrew; Farrah, D.; Peng, Eric W.; Elliott, Rachel E.; Petty, Sara

doi:10.1093/mnras/stx401

Cited by 14 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 114 publications

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“…mag arcsec −2 (Rudick et al 2009;Puchwein et al 2010;Harris et al 2017) and confirmed by observations (e.g., Arnaboldi et al 2012;Kormendy & Bender 2012;Mihos et al 2017;Iodice et al 2017). We refer to these remnants as accretion signatures.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 70%

Structure of Brightest Cluster Galaxies and Intracluster Light

Kluge

Neureiter

Riffeser

et al. 2020

ApJS

120

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Observations of 170 local (z 0.08) galaxy clusters in the northern hemisphere have been obtained with the Wendelstein Telescope Wide Field Imager (WWFI). We correct for systematic effects such as PSF broadening, foreground stars contamination, relative bias offsets and charge persistence. Scattered light induced background inhomogeneities are reduced down to ∆SB > 31 g' mag arcsec −2 by large dithering and subtraction of night-sky flats. Residual background inhomogeneities brighter than SB σ < 27.6 g' mag arcsec −2 caused by galactic cirrus are detected in front of 23% of the clusters. However, the large field of view allows to discriminate between accretion signatures and galactic cirrus. We detect accretion signatures in form of tidal streams in 22%, shells in 9.4%, multiple nuclei in 47% and two Brightest Cluster Galaxies (BCGs) in 7% of the clusters / BCGs.We measure semi-major axis surface brightness profiles of the BCGs and their surrounding Intracluster Light (ICL) down to a limiting surface brightness of SB = 30 g' mag arcsec −2 . The spatial resolution in the inner regions is increased by combining the WWFI light profiles with those that we measured from archival Hubble Space Telescope images or deconvolved WWFI images. We find that 71% of the BCG+ICL systems have SB profiles that are well described by a single Sérsic (SS) function whereas 29% require a double Sérsic (DS) function to obtain a good fit. SS BCGs, having more symmetric isophotal shapes and fewer detected accretion signatures than DS BCGs, appear to have slightly more relaxed morphology than their DS counterparts. Members of the latter type encompass S2 = 52 ± 21% of their total light in the outer Sérsic component. There is a wide scatter in transition radii r × between the two Sérsic components and surface brightnesses at the transition radii SB(r × ). The integrated brightnesses of the BCG+ICL systems correlate only weakly with S2, r × and SB(r × ). That indicates that the outer Sérsic component is unlikely to trace the dynamically hot ICL since BCG+ICL systems grow at present epoch predominantly in their outskirts.We find that BCGs have scaling relations that differ markedly from those of normal ellipticals, likely due to their indistinguishable embedding in the ICL. The most extended BCG+ICL systems have luminosities and radii comparable to whole clusters. We use different plausible estimates for the ICL component (based on an integrated brightness threshold, SB thresholds and profile decompositions) and find that they do not affect our conclusions about the properties of the ICL. On average, the ICL seems to be better aligned than the BCG with the host cluster in terms of position angle and centering. That makes it a potential Dark Matter tracer. We find positive correlations between BCG+ICL brightness and cluster mass, cluster radius, cluster richness and integrated satellite brightness, confirming that BCG/ICL growth is indeed coupled with cluster growth.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 70%

Structure of Brightest Cluster Galaxies and Intracluster Light

Kluge

Neureiter

Riffeser

et al. 2020

ApJS

120

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“…For example, Zibetti et al [23] assumed that the ICL distribution could be approximated by using an NFW profile, while Jee [137] used the ICL together with weak lensing to trace DM structures in a cluster, and Giallongo et al [29] have probably been the first to conclude that the ICL can be used to probe the DM distribution by comparing ICL observations with a DM model. Just three years later, Harris et al [76], making use of a Fornax-like simulated cluster, found that the ICL profile is more centrally concentrated than that of the DM.…”

Section: Icl: An Observable Tracer Of the Dark Matter Distributionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…By looking at these two properties, it is possible to discern which, among the above quoted mechanisms, is the main responsible mechanism for the formation of the ICL. In the last few years, many authors focused on the age, color and metallicity gradients of BCG + ICL systems [10,16,23,59,62,63,[70][71][72][73][74][75][76][77][78][79][80] and in particular on their shape. It is reasonable to argue that, if mergers are the main responsible mechanisms, we would expect a flat gradient, i.e., no gradient, simply because mergers would tend to mix up the two components (see discussion in [6,77]).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the Origin and Evolution of the Intra-Cluster Light: A Brief Review of the Most Recent Developments

Contini

2021

Galaxies

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Not all the light in galaxy groups and clusters comes from stars that are bound to galaxies. A significant fraction of it constitutes the so-called intracluster or diffuse light (ICL), a low surface brightness component of groups/clusters generally found in the surroundings of the brightest cluster galaxies and intermediate/massive satellites. In this review, I will describe the mechanisms responsible for its formation and evolution, considering the large contribution given to the topic in the last decades by both the theoretical and observational sides. Starting from the methods that are commonly used to isolate the ICL, I will address the remarkable problem given by its own definition, which still makes the comparisons among different studies not trivial, to conclude by giving an overview of the most recent works that take advantage of the ICL as a luminous tracer of the dark matter distribution in galaxy groups and clusters.

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“…The amount of light in the ICL has also grown by a factor of 2-4 since z ∼ 1 (Burke et al 2012), and the tidal disruption of galaxies is understood to be its origin (e.g. Harris et al 2017). This suggests there is a big caveat to including the abundances of UDGs in both local and intermediate redshift systems on the same abundance halo-mass relation as it is not unreasonable to believe that this relation has evolved since z ∼ 0.4, with these processes destroying (or creating) UDGs as clusters have continued to assemble over the past ∼4 Gyr.…”

Section: The Abundance Of Ultra-diffuse Galaxiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Distribution of Ultra-diffuse and Ultra-compact Galaxies in the Frontier Fields

Janssens

Abraham

Brodie

et al. 2019

ApJ

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Large low surface brightness galaxies have recently been found to be abundant in nearby galaxy clusters. In this paper, we investigate these ultra-diffuse galaxies (UDGs) in the six Hubble Frontier Fields galaxy clusters: Abell 2744, MACSJ0416.1−2403, MACSJ0717.5+3745, MACSJ1149.5+2223, Abell S1063 and Abell 370. These are the most massive (1-3 × 10 15 M ) and distant (0.308 < z < 0.545) systems in which this class of galaxy has yet been discovered. We estimate that the clusters host of the order of ∼200-1400 UDGs inside the virial radius (R 200 ), consistent with the UDG abundance halo-mass relation found in the local universe, and suggests that UDGs may be formed in clusters. Within each cluster, however, we find that UDGs are not evenly distributed. Instead their projected spatial distributions are lopsided, and they are deficient in the regions of highest mass density as traced by gravitational lensing. While the deficiency of UDGs in central regions is not surprising, the lopsidedness is puzzling. The UDGs, and their lopsided spatial distributions, may be associated with known substructures late in their infall into the clusters, meaning that we find evidence both for formation of UDGs in clusters and for UDGs falling into clusters. We also investigate the ultracompact dwarfs (UCDs) residing in the clusters, and find the spatial distributions of UDGs and UCDs appear anti-correlated. Around 15% of UDGs exhibit either compact nuclei or nearby point sources. Taken together, these observations provide additional evidence for a picture in which at least some UDGs are destroyed in dense cluster environments and leave behind a residue of UCDs.

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Quantifying the origin and distribution of intracluster Light in a Fornax-Like Cluster

Cited by 14 publications

References 114 publications

Structure of Brightest Cluster Galaxies and Intracluster Light

Structure of Brightest Cluster Galaxies and Intracluster Light

On the Origin and Evolution of the Intra-Cluster Light: A Brief Review of the Most Recent Developments

The Distribution of Ultra-diffuse and Ultra-compact Galaxies in the Frontier Fields

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