2008ApJ...680..975M

We report a search for the presence of dust in the intracluster medium based on the study of statistical reddening of background galaxies. Armed with the Red-sequence Cluster Survey data, from which we extracted (1) a catalog of 458 clusters with z_clust<0.5 and (2) a catalog of ∼90,000 galaxies with photometric redshift 0.5<z_ph<0.8 and photometric redshift uncertainty δz_ph/(1+z_ph)<0.06, we have constructed several samples of galaxies according to their projected distances to the cluster centers. No significant color differences [<E(B-R_C)≥0.005±0.008 and <E(V-z')≥0.000±0.008] were found for galaxies in the background to the clusters compared to the references. Assuming a Galactic extinction law, we derive an average visual extinction of <A_V≥0.004±0.010 toward the inner R₂₀₀ of clusters.