Diffuse light in the young cluster of galaxies CL J1449+0856 at z=2.07

TL;DR

This study investigates the evolution of intracluster light in galaxy clusters by detecting diffuse light in the high-redshift cluster CL J1449+0856 at z=2.07, revealing increased diffuse light compared to lower redshifts and indicating ongoing merging activity.

Contribution

First detection of diffuse intracluster light at z=2.07, showing significant evolution and ongoing merging processes in early galaxy clusters.

Findings

Detected three diffuse light sources at z=2.07 with magnitudes H=24.8, 25.5, 25.9

Found at least 1.5 magnitude increase in diffuse light compared to z<0.8

Indications of merging activity along a specific axis

Abstract

Cluster properties do not seem to be changing significantly during their mature evolution phase, for example they do not seem to show strong dynamical evolution at least up to z~0.5, their galaxy red sequence is already in place at least up to z$\sim$1.2, and their diffuse light content remains stable up to z~0.8. The question is now to know if cluster properties can evolve more significantly at redshifts notably higher than 1. We propose here to see how the properties of the intracluster light (ICL) evolve with redshift by detecting and analysing the ICL in the X-ray cluster CL J1449+0856 at z=2.07 (discovered by Gobat et al. 2011), based on deep HST NICMOS H band exposures.We used the same wavelet-based method as that applied to 10 clusters between z=0.4 and 0.8 by Guennou et al. (2012). We detect three diffuse light sources with respective total magnitudes of H=24.8, 25.5, and 25.9, plus a more compact object with a magnitude H=25.3. We discuss the significance of our detections and show that they are robust. The three sources of diffuse light indicate an elongation along a north-east south-west axis, similar to that of the distribution of the central galaxies and to the X-ray elongation. This strongly suggests a history of merging events along this direction. While Guennou et al. (2012) found a roughly constant amount of diffuse light for clusters between z~0 and 0.8, we put in evidence at least a 1.5 magnitude increase between z~0.8 and 2. If we assume that the amount of diffuse light is directly linked to the infall activity on the cluster, this implies that CL J1449+0856 is still undergoing strong merging events.