MORE EVIDENCE FOR A POPULATION OF INTRACLUSTER PLANETARY-NEBULAE IN THE VIRGO CLUSTER

We surveyed a 50 arcmin(2) region in the Virgo cluster core to search for intergalactic planetary nebulae and found 11 candidates in the sur veyed area, The measured fluxes of these unresolved sources are consis tent with these objects being planetary nebulae from an intergalactic population of stars, although we cannot exclude some minor contaminati on of our sample by redshifted starburst galaxies, We compute the cumu lative luminosity function of these 11 planetary nebula candidates. If we assume that they belong to the Virgo cluster, their cumulative lum inosity 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 ma ss density of the intergalactic stellar population at the surveyed fie ld in the cluster core.