Bibcode
Montes, M.; Trujillo, I.
Bibliographical reference
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 474, Issue 1, p.917-932
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2
2018
Citations
97
Refereed citations
88
Description
Multiwavelength deep observations are a key tool to understand the
origin of the diffuse light in clusters of galaxies: the intracluster
light (ICL). For this reason, we take advantage of the Hubble Frontier
Fields (HFF) survey to investigate the properties of the stellar
populations of the ICL of its six massive intermediate redshift (0.3
< z < 0.6) clusters. We carry on this analysis down to a radial
distance of ˜120 kpc from the brightest cluster galaxy. We found
that the average metallicity of the ICL is [Fe/H]ICL ˜
-0.5, compatible with the value of the outskirts of the Milky Way. The
mean stellar ages of the ICL are between 2 and 6 Gyr younger than the
most massive galaxies of the clusters. Those results suggest that the
ICL of these massive (>1015 M⊙) clusters is
formed by the stripping of MW-like objects that have been accreted at z
< 1, in agreement with current simulations. We do not find any
significant increase in the fraction of light of the ICL with cosmic
time, although the redshift range explored is narrow to derive any
strong conclusion. When exploring the slope of the stellar mass density
profile, we found that the ICL of the HFF clusters follows the shape of
their underlying dark matter haloes, in agreement with the idea that the
ICL is the result of the stripping of galaxies at recent times.
Related projects
Traces of Galaxy Formation: Stellar populations, Dynamics and Morphology
We are a large, diverse, and very active research group aiming to provide a comprehensive picture for the formation of galaxies in the Universe. Rooted in detailed stellar population analysis, we are constantly exploring and developing new tools and ideas to understand how galaxies came to be what we now observe.
Ignacio
Martín Navarro