Elliptical galaxies interacting with the cluster tidal field: origin of the intracluster stellar population

Abstract

With the aid of simple numerical models, we discuss a particular aspect of the interaction between stellar orbital periods inside elliptical galaxies (Es) and the parent cluster tidal field (CTF), i.e., the possibility that collisionless stellar evaporation from Es is an effective mechanism for the production of the recently discovered intracluster stellar populations (ISP). These very preliminary investigations, based on idealized galaxy density profiles (such as Ferrers density distributions) show that, over an Hubble time, the amount of stars lost by a representative galaxy may sum up to the 10% of the initial galaxy mass, a fraction in interesting agreement with observational data. The effectiveness of this mechanism is due to the fact that the galaxy oscillation periods near its equilibrium configurations in the CTF are of the same order of stellar orbital times in the external galaxy regions.