Memoirs of mass accretion: probing the edges of intracluster light in simulated galaxy clusters

TL;DR

This study investigates how the edges of intracluster light in galaxy clusters, specifically splashback radii, can reveal detailed information about the clusters' mass assembly and merger history, using simulations.

Contribution

It introduces a novel analysis of ICL edges as probes of cluster accretion history, demonstrating their sensitivity and potential for observational use.

Findings

Splashback radii correlate with recent mass accretion.

ICL features outperform traditional indicators like stellar mass gap.

ICL measurements can distinguish recent major mergers.

Abstract

The diffuse starlight extending throughout massive galaxy clusters, known as intracluster light (ICL), has the potential to be read as a memoir of mass accretion: informative, individual, and yet imperfect. Here, we combine dark matter-only zoom-in simulations from the Symphony suite with the Nimbus "star-tagging" model of the stellar halo to assess how much information about the mass assembly of an individual galaxy cluster can be gleaned from idealized measurements of ICL outskirts. We show that the edges of a cluster's stellar profile -- the primary (Rsp*1) and secondary (Rsp*2) stellar "splashback" radii -- are sensitive to both continuous mass accretion histories and discrete merger events, making them potentially powerful probes of a cluster's past. We find that Rsp*1 strongly correlates with the cluster's mass ~1 dynamical time ago, while Rsp*2 traces more recent mass accretion history to a slightly lesser degree. In combination, these features can further distinguish between clusters that have and have not undergone a major merger within the past dynamical time. We use both to predict realistic cluster mass accretion histories with the MultiCAM framework. These outer ICL features are significantly more sensitive to mass accretion and merger histories than the stellar mass gap and halo concentration, and perform comparably to the commonly used X-ray-based tracer of relaxedness, x_off. While our analysis is idealized, the relevant ICL features are potentially detectable in next-generation deep imaging of nearby clusters. This work highlights the promise of ICL measurements and lays the groundwork for more detailed forecasts of their power.