Extended halos and intracluster light using Planetary Nebulae as tracers in nearby clusters

TL;DR

This paper reviews how planetary nebulae are used as tracers to study the extended halos and intracluster light in nearby galaxy clusters, providing insights into galaxy formation and evolution.

Contribution

It highlights the role of planetary nebulae in mapping diffuse light and kinematics in clusters, linking observational data with cosmological simulations.

Findings

Planetary nebulae effectively trace intracluster light.

Their distribution constrains galaxy formation models.

Kinematic data informs on mass and orbital structures.

Abstract

Since the first detection of intracluster planetary nebulae in 1996, imaging and spectroscopic surveys identified such stars to trace the radial extent and the kinematics of diffuse light in clusters. This topic of research is tightly linked with the studies of galaxy formation and evolution in dense environment, as the spatial distribution and kinematics of planetary nebulae in the outermost regions of galaxies and in the cluster cores is relevant for setting constraints on cosmological simulations. In this sense, extragalactic planetary nebulae play a very important role in the near-field cosmology, in order to measure the integrated mass as function of radius and the orbital distribution of stars in structures placed in the densest regions of the nearby universe.