Intracluster stars tracing motions in nearby clusters

Cosmological simulations of structure formation predict that galaxies are dramatically modified by galaxy harassment during the assembly of galaxy clusters, losing a substantial fraction of their stellar mass which today must be in the form of intracluster stars. Simulations predict non-uniform spatial and radial velocity distributions for these stars. Intracluster planetary nebulae are the only abundant component of the intracluster light whose kinematics can be measured at this time. Comparing these velocity distributions with simulations will provide a unique opportunity to investigate the hierarchical cluster formation process as it takes place in the nearby universe.