The Intracluster Light and its Link with the Dynamical State of the Host Group/Cluster: the Role of the Halo Concentration

TL;DR

This study explores how halo concentration influences the formation of intra-cluster light (ICL) in galaxy groups and clusters, revealing that higher concentration correlates with increased ICL fraction due to stronger tidal forces, independent of galaxy type fractions.

Contribution

It demonstrates that halo concentration, rather than mass or galaxy fractions, is the primary factor driving ICL formation in galaxy groups and clusters, using semi-analytic models and high-resolution simulations.

Findings

ICL fraction follows a normal distribution due to stochastic processes.

Higher halo concentration leads to higher ICL fractions.

ICL formation is mainly driven by stellar stripping and mergers, especially in concentrated haloes.

Abstract

We investigate on the role of the halo concentration in the formation of the intra-cluster light (ICL) in galaxy groups and clusters, as predicted by a state-of-art semi-analytic model of galaxy formation, coupled with a set of high-resolution dark matter only simulations. The analysis focuses on how the fraction of ICL correlates with halo mass, concentration and fraction of early-type galaxies (ETGs) in a large sample of groups and clusters with $13.0\leq \log M_{halo} \leq 15.0$. The fraction of ICL follows a normal distribution, a consequence of the stochastic nature of the physical processes responsible for the formation of the diffuse light. The fractional budget of ICL depends on both halo mass (very weakly) until group scales, and concentration (remarkably). More interestingly, the ICL fraction is higher in more concentrated objects, a result of the stronger tidal forces acting in the innermost regions of the haloes where the concentration is the quantity playing the most relevant role. Our model predictions do not show any dependence between the ICL and ETGs fractions and so, we instead suggest the concentration rather than the mass, as recently claimed, to be the main driver of the ICL formation. The diffuse light starts to form in groups via stellar stripping and mergers and later assembled in more massive objects. However, the formation and assembly keep going on group/cluster scales at lower redshift through the same processes, mainly via stellar stripping in the vicinity of the central regions where tidal forces are stronger.