Shredded Galaxies as the Source of Diffuse Intrahalo Light on Varying Scales

By C. Purcell, James S. Bullock, A. Zentner. 2007

206 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We make predictions for diffuse stellar mass fractions in dark matter halos from the scales of small spiral galaxies to those of large galaxy clusters. We use an extensively tested analytic model for subhalo infall and evolution and empirical constraints from galaxy survey data to set the stellar mass in each accreted subhalo, which is added to the diffuse light as subhalos become disrupted due to interactions within their hosts. We predict that the stellar mass fraction in diffuse, intrahalo light should rise on average from ~0.5% to ~20% from small galaxy halos (~1011 M☉) to poor groups (~1013 M☉). The trend with mass flattens considerably beyond the group scale, increasing weakly from a fraction of ~20% in poor galaxy clusters (~1014 M☉) to roughly ~30% in massive clusters (~1015 M☉). The mass-dependent diffuse light fraction is governed primarily by the empirical fact that the mass-to-light ratio in galaxy halos must vary as a function of halo mass. Galaxy halos have little diffuse light because they accrete most of their mass in small subhalos that themselves have high mass-to-light ratios; stellar halos around galaxies are built primarily from disrupted dwarf-irregular-type galaxies with M* ~ 108.5 M☉. The diffuse light in group and cluster halos is built from satellite galaxies that form stars efficiently; intracluster light is dominated by material liberated from massive galaxies with M* ~ 1011 M☉. Our results are consistent with existing observations spanning the galaxy, group, and cluster scale; however, they can be tested more rigorously in future deep surveys.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Global and Planetary Change

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/446b1cb4df733e76f3b09a50c5da21d9cdee7794

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Citations in the corpus

THE GHOSTS SURVEY. I. HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE ADVANCED CAMERA FOR SURVEYS DATA (2011, background): “…to the total luminosity of the system varies strongly with the dark-matter halo mass: from large intra-cluster light fractions for galaxy clusters, to smaller halo light fractions around our L∗ targets, to perhaps nearly non-existent stellar halos for our low-mass targets (Purcell et al. 2007).”
Stellar Mass—Halo Mass Relation and Star Formation Efficiency in High-Mass Halos (2014, background): “…the outer extended envelope that likely forms by mergers and tidal stripping of satellite galaxies (e.g., Murante et al. 2007; Conroy et al. 2007a; Purcell et al. 2007; Puchwein et al. 2010; Feldmann et al. 2010; Watson et al. 2012) and can thus be significantly larger than the size defined by…”
THE LUMINOSITY PROFILE AND STRUCTURAL PARAMETERS OF THE ANDROMEDA GALAXY (2011, background): “…the Milky Way halo based on the distribution and kinematics of RR Lyrae, blue horizontal branch, and giant halo stars over different radial ranges report a fraction of stellar halo light to total galaxy light of ∼1% (e.g., Morrison 1993; Chiba & Beers 2000; Purcell et al. 2007; Bell et al. 2008).”
A Census of Baryons in Galaxy Clusters and Groups (2007, methodology): “…the degree to which our sample selection, which favored systems with central, giant elliptical galaxies, impacts this result, it is noteworthy that Purcell et al. (2007) predict precisely the type of relation that we observe using a simple analytic model for BCG+ICL formation from satellite…”
What determines satellite galaxy disruption (2009, background): “…subhalo merged with the center of its halo if it comes within 5 kpc. Applying the model of Zentner et al. (2005) to the build-up of the ICL, (Purcell et al. 2007) allow satellite disruption to begin at ∼ 20% of infall mass (see also Monaco et al. 2006; Conroy et al. 2007, for models of…”
THE GALAXY CONTENT OF SDSS CLUSTERS AND GROUPS (2007, background): “Generally the BCG+ICL light is closely linked with cluster mass (Zibetti et al. 2005; Conroy et al. 2007; Purcell et al. 2007; Gonzalez et al. 2007).”
GALAXY CLUSTER BARYON FRACTIONS REVISITED (2013, background): “…light (ICL) provides a stringent test for models of cluster galaxy evolution and cluster luminosity function evolution, as the latter serves as a final reservoir for all stars liberated from other cluster galaxies (Conroy et al. 2007; Purcell et al. 2007; Behroozi et al. 2013; Watson et al. 2012).”
The Hierarchical Build-Up of Massive Galaxies and the Intracluster Light since z = 1 (2007, background): “However, as discussed in depth in Purcell et al. (2007), a model like the one favored herein does not produce copious amounts of ICL in lower mass systems because of the increasing virial-to-stellar mass ratio in lower mass systems.”
Merger Histories of Galaxy Halos and Implications for Disk Survival (2007, background): “It is a well-known expectation from EPS that the total mass accreted into a halo of mass M0 is dominated by objects of mass m ∼ 0.1M0 (Lacey & Cole 1993; Zentner & Bullock 2003; Purcell et al. 2007; Zentner 2007).”
THE AVERAGE STAR FORMATION HISTORIES OF GALAXIES IN DARK MATTER HALOS FROM z = 0–8 (2012, background): “…contributed less than 3% of the present-day stellar mass of the Milky Way into the ICL; allowing for passive stellar evolution, this would result in less than 2% of the luminosity of the Milky Way coming from the intrahalo light, in excellent agreement with observations (Purcell et al. 2007).”
EVOLUTION OF THE GALAXY–DARK MATTER CONNECTION AND THE ASSEMBLY OF GALAXIES IN DARK MATTER HALOS (2011, background): “Hence, the existence of ICS is inevitable; the total stellar mass locked up in the stellar halo can be more than 2 times as massive as the central galaxy at redshifts z < 1.5 (see also Purcell et al. 2007).”
Galactic accretion and the outer structure of galaxies in the CDM model (2013, methodology): “12 in the same way as figure 4 of Purcell et al. (2007), showing the ratio of Macc to M? as a function of M200.”
Accurate masses for dispersion-supported galaxies (2009, background): “Had we included analogous diffuse light components around less massive galaxies (e.g., stellar halos around field ellipticals) the figure would change very little, because halo light is of minimal importance for the total luminosity in less massive systems (see Purcell et al. 2007).”