More Evidence for a Population of Intracluster Planetary Nebulae in the Virgo Cluster

We surveyed a 50 arcmin2 region in the Virgo cluster core to search for intergalactic planetary nebulae and found 11 candidates in the surveyed area. The measured fluxes of these unresolved sources are consistent with these objects being planetary nebulae from an intergalactic population of stars, although we cannot exclude some minor contamination of our sample by redshifted starburst galaxies. We compute the cumulative luminosity function of these 11 planetary nebula candidates. If we assume that they belong to the Virgo cluster, their cumulative luminosity function is in good agreement with planetary nebula luminosity-function simulations for a typical stellar population of ellipticals or spiral bulges. This comparison allows us to estimate the surface mass density of the intergalactic stellar population at the surveyed field in the cluster core.