THE FATE OF DWARF GALAXIES IN CLUSTERS AND THE ORIGIN OF INTRACLUSTER STARS. II. COSMOLOGICAL SIMULATIONS
- Departement de physique, de genie physique et d'optique, Universite Laval, Quebec, QC (Canada)
- Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste, I-34143 Trieste (Italy)
- Centre de Recherche en Astrophysique du Quebec, C.P. 6128, Succ. Centre-Ville, Montreal, QC (Canada)
We combine an N-body simulation algorithm with a subgrid treatment of galaxy formation, mergers, and tidal destruction, and an observed conditional luminosity function {Phi}(L|M), to study the origin and evolution of galactic and extragalactic light inside a cosmological volume of size (100 Mpc){sup 3}, in a concordance {Lambda}CDM model. This algorithm simulates the growth of large-scale structures and the formation of clusters, the evolution of the galaxy population in clusters, the destruction of galaxies by mergers and tides, and the evolution of the intracluster light (ICL). We find that destruction of galaxies by mergers dominates over destruction by tides by about an order of magnitude at all redshifts. However, tidal destruction is sufficient to produce ICL fractions f{sub ICL} that are sufficiently high to match observations. Our simulation produces 18 massive clusters (M{sub cl} > 10{sup 14} M{sub Sun }) with values of f{sub ICL} ranging from 1% to 58% at z = 0. There is a weak trend of f{sub ICL} to increase with cluster mass. The bulk of the ICL ({approx}60%) is provided by intermediate galaxies of total masses 10{sup 11}-10{sup 12} M{sub Sun} and stellar masses 6 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 8} M{sub Sun} to 3 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 10} M{sub Sun} that were tidally destroyed by even more massive galaxies. The contribution of low-mass galaxies to the ICL is small and the contribution of dwarf galaxies is negligible, even though, by numbers, most galaxies that are tidally destroyed are dwarfs. Tracking clusters back in time, we find that their values of f{sub ICL} tend to increase over time, but can experience sudden changes that are sometimes non-monotonic. These changes occur during major mergers involving clusters of comparable masses but very different intracluster luminosities. Most of the tidal destruction events take place in the central regions of clusters. As a result, the ICL is more centrally concentrated than the galactic light. Our results support tidal destruction of intermediate-mass galaxies as a plausible scenario for the origin of the ICL.
- OSTI ID:
- 22092291
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 757, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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