Diffuse Optical Light in A3888

2004 • 2004cgpc.sympE..28K

Authors • Krick, J. • Bernstein, R.

Abstract • Surface brightness measurements of the diffuse intracluster light(ICL) in centrally concentrated, relaxed clusters have demonstrated that stars bound only to the cluster potential can contain anywhere from 5-50% of the total cluster flux. As such, this intracluster component is a considerable fraction of the stellar population and can be used to constrain models for the structure and evolution of clusters and their member galaxies. We are undertaking a program to measure the characteristics of the ICL (total flux, color, and substructure) as a function of cluster mass, morphology, and redshift. Our sample includes clusters at low and moderate redshifts, observed with the LCO 40 inch telescope (B- and r-band) and 100 inch telescope (V- and r-band) respectively. We present here the preliminary reductions and analysis of one cluster in that sample, A3888. With 4-5 hour integration times on-source per filter, we have obtained sensitivities of ∼30.3 mag arcsec^-2 in gunnr band over arcminute scales and ∼29.5 mag arcsec^-2 at the spatial resolution of the data.

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