The presence of a diffuse stellar component in galaxy clusters has been
established by a number of observational works in recent years. In this
contribution I summarize our results (Zibetti et al. 2005) obtained by stacking
SDSS images of 683 clusters, selected with the maxBCG algorithm at 0.2< z <0.3.
Thanks to our large sample and the advantages of image stacking applied to SDSS
images, we are able to measure the systematic properties of the intracluster
light (ICL) with very high accuracy. We find that the average surface
brightness of the ICL ranges between 26 and 32 mag/arcsec^2, and constantly
declines from 70 kpc cluster-centric distance (i.e. distance from the BCG) to
700 kpc. The fraction of diffuse light over the total light (including
galaxies), monotonically declines from ~50 to <~5% over the same range of
distances, thus showing that the ICL is more easily produced close to the
bottom of a cluster's potential well. Clusters lacking a bright BCG hardly
build up a large amount of intracluster stellar component. The link between the
growth of the BCG and the ICL is also suggested by the strong degree of
alignment between these two components which is observed in clusters where the
BCG displays a significant elongation. With the additional fact that the colors
of the ICL are consistent with those of galaxies, all this appears to be
evidence for IC stars being stripped from galaxies that suffer very strong
tidal interactions in the center of clusters and eventually merge into the BCG.
Our measurements also show that IC stars are a minor component of a cluster's
baryonic budget, representing only ~10% of the total optical emission within
500 kpc. Finally, we discuss some open issues that emerge from a comparison of
the present results with other observations and recent theoretical modeling.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, to appear in the Proceedings of the IAUS 244
"Dark Galaxies & Lost Baryons", J. I. Davies & M. J. Disney, eds., Cardiff
15-29 June 200
