2001ApJ...549..244K

Using N-body numerical simulations, we examine possible mechanisms for the origin of the intracluster starlight features recently discovered in the Coma Cluster of galaxies. We show that tidal interactions of a ``normal'' elliptical galaxy with a symmetrically distributed dark matter potential do not produce the observed intracluster starlight features. A head-on collision of two normal ellipticals does explain, however, the origin of the intracluster features with a surface brightness of about 26 mag.arcsec^–2. Another possible explanation for the intracluster starlight features is galactic tidal interactions with massive intracluster substructures. The presence of substructures in Coma with a density of ∼0.1 times the density in the center of the galaxy and with a total mass about 3 orders of magnitude larger than the mass of a normal elliptical galaxy would account for the observations.