The Fornax Deep Survey with VST. VIII. Connecting the accretion history
  with the cluster density
  This work is based on deep multi-band (g, r, i) data from the Fornax Deep
Survey with VST. We analyse the surface brightness profiles of the 19 bright
ETGs inside the virial radius of the Fornax cluster. The main aim of this work
is to identify signatures of accretion onto galaxies by studying the presence
of outer stellar halos, and understand their nature and occurrence. Our
analysis also provides a new and accurate estimate of the intra-cluster light
inside the virial radius of Fornax. We performed multi-component fits to the
azimuthally averaged surface brightness profiles available for all sample
galaxies. This allows to quantify the relative weight of all components in the
galaxy structure that contribute to the total light. In addition, we derived
the average g-i colours in each component identified by the fit, as well as the
azimuthally averaged g-i colour profiles, to correlate them with the stellar
mass of each galaxy and the location inside the cluster. We find that in the
most massive and reddest ETGs the fraction of light in, probably accreted,
halos is much larger than in the other galaxies. Less-massive galaxies have an
accreted mass fraction lower than 30%, bluer colours and reside in the
low-density regions of the cluster. Inside the virial radius of the cluster,
the total luminosity of the intra-cluster light, compared with the total
luminosity of all cluster members, is about 34%. Inside the Fornax cluster
there is a clear correlation between the amount of accreted material in the
stellar halos of galaxies and the density of the environment in which those
galaxies reside. By comparing this quantity with theoretical predictions and
previous observational estimates, there is a clear indication that the driving
factor for the accretion process is the total stellar mass of the galaxy, in
agreement with the hierarchical accretion scenario.
