Spitzer IRAC Low Surface Brightness Observations of the Virgo Cluster
  We present 3.6 and 4.5 micron Spitzer IRAC imaging over 0.77 square degrees
at the Virgo cluster core for the purpose of understanding the formation
mechanisms of the low surface brightness intracluster light features.
Instrumental and astrophysical backgrounds that are hundreds of times higher
than the signal were carefully characterized and removed. We examine both
intracluster light plumes as well as the outer halo of the giant elliptical
M87. For two intracluster light plumes, we use optical colors to constrain
their ages to be greater than 3 & 5 Gyr, respectively. Upper limits on the IRAC
fluxes constrain the upper limits to the masses, and optical detections
constrain the lower limits to the masses. In this first measurement of mass of
intracluster light plumes we find masses in the range of 5.5 x 10^8 - 4.5 x
10^9 and 2.1 x 10^8 - 1.5 x 10^9 solar masses for the two plumes for which we
have coverage. Given their expected short lifetimes, and a constant production
rate for these types of streams, integrated over Virgo's lifetime, they can
account for the total ICL content of the cluster implying that we do not need
to invoke ICL formation mechanisms other than gravitational mechanisms leading
to bright plumes. We also examined the outer halo of the giant elliptical M87.
The color profile from the inner to outer halo of M87 (160 Kpc) is consistent
with either a flat or optically blue gradient, where a blue gradient could be
due to younger or lower metallicity stars at larger radii. The similarity of
the age predicted by both the infrared and optical colors (> few Gyr) indicates
that the optical measurements are not strongly affected by dust extinction.
