Euclid preparation. LXX. Forecasting detection limits for intracluster light in the Euclid Wide Survey

Euclid Collaboration; Bellhouse, C.; Golden-Marx, J. B.; Bamford, S. P.; Hatch, N. A.; Kluge, M.; Ellien, A.; Ahad, S. L.; Dimauro, P.; Durret, F.; Gonzalez, A. H.; Jimenez-Teja, Y.; Montes, M.; Sereno, M.; Slezak, E.; Bolzonella, M.; Castignani, G.; Cucciati, O.; De Lucia, G.; Ghaffari, Z.; Moscardini, L.; Pello, R.; Pozzetti, L.; Saifollahi, T.; Borlaff, A. S.; Aghanim, N.; Altieri, B.; Amara, A.; Andreon, S.; Baccigalupi, C.; Baldi, M.; Bardelli, S.; Basset, A.; Battaglia, P.; Bender, R.; Bonino, D.; Branchini, E.; Brescia, M.; Caillat, A.; Camera, S.; Capobianco, V.; Carbone, C.; Cardone, V. F.; Carretero, J.; Casas, S.; Castellano, M.; Cavuoti, S.; Cimatti, A.; Colodro-Conde, C.; Congedo, G.; Conselice, C. J.; Conversi, L.; Copin, Y.; Courbin, F.; Courtois, H. M.; Cuillandre, J. -C.; Da Silva, A.; Degaudenzi, H.; Di Giorgio, A. M.; Dinis, J.; Dubath, F.; Duncan, C. A. J.; Dupac, X.; Dusini, S.; Farina, M.; Farrens, S.; Faustini, F.; Ferriol, S.; Fotopoulou, S.; Frailis, M.; Franceschi, E.; Fumana, M.; Galeotta, S.; George, K.; Gillis, B.; Giocoli, C.; Gómez-Alvarez, P.; Grazian, A.; Grupp, F.; Haugan, S. V. H.; Hoekstra, H.; Holliman, M. S.; Holmes, W.; Hook, I.; Hormuth, F.; Hornstrup, A.; Hudelot, P.; Jahnke, K.; Jhabvala, M.; Keihänen, E.; Kermiche, S.; Kiessling, A.; Kilbinger, M.; Kubik, B.; Kümmel, M.; Kunz, M.; Kurki-Suonio, H.; Liebing, P.; Ligori, S.; Lilje, P. B.; Lindholm, V.; Lloro, I.; Mainetti, G.; Maino, D.; Maiorano, E.; Mansutti, O.; Marggraf, O.; Markovic, K.; Martinelli, M.; Martinet, N.; Marulli, F.; Massey, R.; Maurogordato, S.; Medinaceli, E.; Mei, S.; Melchior, M.; Meneghetti, M.; Merlin, E.; Meylan, G.; Moresco, M.; Nakajima, R.; Neissner, C.; Niemi, S. -M.; Padilla, C.; Paltani, S.; Pasian, F.; Pedersen, K.; Pettorino, V.; Pires, S.; Polenta, G.; Poncet, M.; Popa, L. A.; Raison, F.; Renzi, A.; Rhodes, J.; Riccio, G.; Romelli, E.; Roncarelli, M.; Rossetti, E.; Saglia, R.; Sakr, Z.; Sapone, D.; Sartoris, B.; Schneider, P.; Schrabback, T.; Seidel, G.; Serrano, S.; Sirignano, C.; Sirri, G.; Stanco, L.; Steinwagner, J.; Tallada-Crespí, P.; Tereno, I.; Toledo-Moreo, R.; Torradeflot, F.; Tsyganov, A.; Tutusaus, I.; Valenziano, L.; Vassallo, T.; Verdoes Kleijn, G.; Veropalumbo, A.; Wang, Y.; Weller, J.; Zamorani, G.; Zucca, E.; Biviano, A.; Bozzo, E.; Burigana, C.; Calabrese, M.; Di Ferdinando, D.; Escartin Vigo, J. A.; Farinelli, R.; Finelli, F.; Gabarra, L.; Gracia-Carpio, J.; Matthew, S.; Mauri, N.; Mora, A.; Pöntinen, M.; Scottez, V.; Simon, P.; Tenti, M.; Viel, M.; Wiesmann, M.; Akrami, Y.; Andika, I. T.; Anselmi, S.; Archidiacono, M.; Atrio-Barandela, F.; Ballardini, M.; Bethermin, M.; Blanchard, A.; Blot, L.; Böhringer, H.; Borgani, S.; Brown, M. L.; Bruton, S.; Cabanac, R.; Calabro, A.; Cañas-Herrera, G.; Cappi, A.; Caro, F.; Carvalho, C. S.; Castro, T.; Chambers, K. C.; Cogato, F.; Contini, T.; Cooray, A. R.; De Paolis, F.; Desprez, G.; Díaz-Sánchez, A.; Diaz, J. J.; Di Domizio, S.; Diego, J. M.; Dole, H.; Escoffier, S.; Ferrari, A. G.; Ferreira, P. G.; Finoguenov, A.; Fontana, A.; Ganga, K.; García-Bellido, J.; Gasparetto, T.; Gaztanaga, E.; Giacomini, F.; Gianotti, F.; Gozaliasl, G.; Gregorio, A.; Guidi, M.; Gutierrez, C. M.; Hall, A.; Hartley, W. G.; Hemmati, S.; Hildebrandt, H.; Hjorth, J.; Jimenez Muñoz, A.; Kajava, J. J. E.; Kang, Y.; Kansal, V.; Karagiannis, D.; Kirkpatrick, C. C.; Kruk, S.; Lattanzi, M.; Le Brun, A. M. C.; Le Graet, J.; Legrand, L.; Lembo, M.; Lesgourgues, J.; Liaudat, T. I.; Liu, S. J.; Loureiro, A.; Magliocchetti, M.; Mannucci, F.; Maoli, R.; Martín-Fleitas, J.; Martins, C. J. A. P.; Maurin, L.; Metcalf, R. B.; Miluzio, M.; Monaco, P.; Moretti, C.; Morgante, G.; Murray, C.; Naidoo, K.; Navarro-Alsina, A.; Nesseris, S.; Paterson, K.; Patrizii, L.; Pisani, A.; Popa, V.; Potter, D.; Risso, I.; Rocci, P. -F.; Sahlén, M.; Sarpa, E.; Schneider, A.; Schultheis, M.; Sciotti, D.; Sellentin, E.; Smith, L. C.; Stanford, S. A.; Tanidis, K.; Tao, C.; Testera, G.; Teyssier, R.; Toft, S.; Tosi, S.; Troja, A.; Tucci, M.; Valieri, C.; Valiviita, J.; Vergani, D.; Verza, G.; Vielzeuf, P.; Walton, N. A.

doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202553887

Published June 2025 | Version Published

Journal Article Open

Euclid preparation. LXX. Forecasting detection limits for intracluster light in the Euclid Wide Survey

1. University of Nottingham
2. Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics
3. Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur
4. University of Waterloo
5. INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Via Frascati 33, 00078, Monteporzio Catone, Italy
6. National Observatory
7. Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris
8. University of Florida
9. Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía
10. Institute of Space Sciences
11. Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias
12. University of La Laguna
13. INAF-Osservatorio di Astrofisica e Scienza dello Spazio di Bologna, Via Piero Gobetti 93/3, 40129, Bologna, Italy
14. INFN Sezione di Bologna
15. Lagrange Laboratory
16. Trieste Astronomical Observatory
17. Institute for Fundamental Physics of the Universe
18. University of Bologna
19. Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, CNES, LAM, Marseille, France
20. Observatory of Strasbourg
21. Ames Research Center
22. Bay Area Environmental Research Institute
23. Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale
24. European Space Astronomy Centre
25. University of Surrey
26. Brera Astronomical Observatory
27. INFN Sezione di Trieste
28. International School for Advanced Studies
29. Centre National d'Études Spatiales
30. Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
31. Osservatorio Astrofisico di Torino
32. University of Genoa
33. INFN Sezione di Genova
34. University of Naples Federico II
35. Astronomical Observatory of Capodimonte
36. INFN Sezione di Napoli
37. University of Turin
38. INFN Sezione di Torino
39. Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica di Milano
40. INFN Sezione di Roma I
41. Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas
42. RWTH Aachen University
43. University of Portsmouth
44. University of Edinburgh
45. University of Manchester
46. European Space Research Institute
47. Claude Bernard University Lyon 1
48. University of Barcelona
49. Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats
50. UCB Lyon 1, CNRS/IN2P3, IUF, IP2I Lyon, 4 rue Enrico Fermi, 69622, Villeurbanne, France
51. University of Paris
52. University of Lisbon
53. University of Geneva
54. Institute for Space Astrophysics and Planetology
55. INFN Sezione di Padova
56. Agenzia Spaziale Italiana
57. University of Bristol
58. FRACTAL S.L.N.E., Calle Tulipán 2, Portal 13 1A, 28231, Las Rozas de Madrid, Spain
59. Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova
60. University of Oslo
61. Leiden University
62. Jet Propulsion Lab
63. Lancaster University
64. Felix Hormuth Engineering, Goethestr. 17, 69181, Leimen, Germany
65. Technical University of Denmark
66. University of Copenhagen
67. Sorbonne University
68. Max Planck Institute for Astronomy
69. Goddard Space Flight Center
70. University of Helsinki
71. Center for Particle Physics of Marseilles
72. Helsinki Institute of Physics
73. University College London
74. Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy
75. Centre de Calcul de l'IN2P3/CNRS, 21 Avenue Pierre de Coubertin, 69627, Villeurbanne Cedex, France
76. University of Milan
77. INFN Sezione di Milano
78. University of Bonn
79. Durham University
80. Astroparticle and Cosmology Laboratory
81. University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland
82. École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
83. Institute for High Energy Physics
84. European Space Research and Technology Centre
85. Institute of Space Science
86. University of Padua
87. Heidelberg University
88. Research Institute in Astrophysics and Planetology
89. Université St Joseph; Faculty of Sciences, Beirut, Lebanon
90. University of Chile
91. Universität Innsbruck
92. Institut d'Estudis Espacials de Catalunya
93. Satlantis, University Science Park, Sede Bld 48940, Leioa-Bilbao, Spain
94. Polytechnic University of Cartagena
95. University of Groningen
96. Infrared Processing and Analysis Center
97. National Institute for Astrophysics
98. Astronomical Observatory of the Autonomous Region of the Aosta Valley (OAVdA), Loc. Lignan 39, I-11020, Nus (Aosta Valley), Italy
99. University of Oxford
100. Aurora Technology for European Space Agency (ESA), Camino bajo del Castillo, s/n, Urbanizacion Villafranca del Castillo, Villanueva de la Cañada, 28692, Madrid, Spain
101. ICL, Junia, Université Catholique de Lille, LITL, 59000, Lille, France
102. ICSC – Centro Nazionale di Ricerca in High Performance Computing, Big Data e Quantum Computing, Via Magnanelli 2, Bologna, Italy
103. Institute for Theoretical Physics
104. Case Western Reserve University
105. Technical University of Munich
106. Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics
107. University of Salamanca
108. University of Ferrara
109. INFN Sezione di Ferrara
110. University of Tokyo
111. Max Planck Institute for Physics
112. University of Trieste
113. California Institute of Technology
114. University of Hawaii at Manoa
115. University of California, Irvine
116. University of Salento
117. INFN Sezione di Lecce
118. INAF-Sezione di Lecce, c/o Dipartimento Matematica e Fisica, Via per Arnesano, 73100, Lecce, Italy
119. Institute of Physics of Cantabria
120. Aalto University
121. Ruhr University Bochum
122. Grenoble Institute of Technology
123. University of Turku
124. Serco for European Space Agency (ESA), Camino bajo del Castillo, s/n, Urbanizacion Villafranca del Castillo, Villanueva de la Cañada, 28692, Madrid, Spain
125. Swinburne University of Technology
126. University of the Western Cape
127. University of Cambridge
128. Institut de Recherche sur les Lois Fondamentales de l'Univers
129. Stockholm University
130. Imperial College London
131. Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory
132. Sapienza University of Rome
133. University of Porto
134. HE Space for European Space Agency (ESA), Camino bajo del Castillo, s/n, Urbanizacion Villafranca del Castillo, Villanueva de la Cañada, 28692, Madrid, Spain
135. Princeton University
136. University of Zurich
137. Uppsala University
138. University of California, Davis
139. Center for Computational Astrophysics, Flatiron Institute, 162 5th Avenue, 10010, New York, NY, USA

The intracluster light (ICL) permeating galaxy clusters is a tracer of the cluster assembly history and potentially a tracer of their dark matter structure. In this work, we explore the capability of the Euclid Wide Survey to detect ICL using H_E-band mock images. We simulated clusters across a range of redshifts (0.3–1.8) and halo masses (10^13.9–10^15.0 M_⊙) using an observationally motivated model of ICL. We identified a 50–200 kpc circular annulus around the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG) in which the signal-to-noise ratio of the ICL is maximised and used the S/N within this aperture as our figure of merit for ICL detection. We compared three state-of-the-art methods for ICL detection and found that a method that performs simple aperture photometry after high-surface brightness source masking is able to detect ICL with minimal bias for clusters more massive than 10^14.2 M_⊙. The S/N of the ICL detection is primarily limited by the redshift of the cluster, which is driven by cosmological dimming rather than the mass of the cluster. Assuming the ICL in each cluster contains 15% of the stellar light, we forecast that Euclid will be able to measure the presence of ICL in up to ∼80 000 clusters of >10^14.2 M_⊙ between z = 0.3 and 1.5 with an S/N>3. Half of these clusters will reside below z = 0.75, and the majority of those below z = 0.6 will be detected with an S/N>20. A few thousand clusters at 1.3<z<1.5 will have ICL detectable with an S/N >3. The surface brightness profile of the ICL model is strongly dependent on both the mass of the cluster and the redshift at which it is observed so that the outer ICL is best observed in the most massive clusters of >10^14.7 M_⊙. Euclid will detect the ICL at a distance of more than 500 kpc from the BCG, up to z = 0.7, in several hundred of these massive clusters over its large survey volume.

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© The Authors 2025. Open Access article, published by EDP Sciences, under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Acknowledgement

NAH and JBGM gratefully acknowledge support from the Leverhulme Trust through a Research Leadership Award. CB, NAH, and SB acknowledge support from the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) under grant ST/X000982/1. FD acknowledges support from CNES. This research was supported by the International Space Science Institute (ISSI) in Bern, through ISSI International Team project #23-577. The Euclid Consortium acknowledges the European Space Agency and a number of agencies and institutes that have supported the development of Euclid, in particular the Agenzia Spaziale Italiana, the Austrian Forschungsförderungsgesellschaft, funded through BMK, the Belgian Science Policy, the Canadian Euclid Consortium, the Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, the DTU Space and the Niels Bohr Institute in Denmark, the French Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales, the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, the Netherlandse Onderzoekschool Voor Astronomie, the Norwegian Space Agency, the Research Council of Finland, the Romanian Space Agency, the State Secretariat for Education, Research, and Innovation (SERI) at the Swiss Space Office (SSO), and the United Kingdom Space Agency. A complete and detailed list is available on the Euclid web site (http://www.euclid-ec.org).

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Is new version of: Discussion Paper: arXiv:2503.17455 (arXiv)

Leverhulme Trust
Science and Technology Facilities Council
ST/X000982/1
Centre National d'Études Spatiales
International Space Science Institute
23-577
European Space Agency

Accepted: 2025-03-20
Available: 2025-05-29

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Caltech groups: Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC), Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy (PMA)
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Euclid preparation. LXX. Forecasting detection limits for intracluster light in the Euclid Wide Survey

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Euclid preparation. LXX. Forecasting detection limits for intracluster light in the Euclid Wide Survey

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