A diffuse component of intra-group light can be observed in compact groups of galaxies .
This component is presumably due to stellar material tidally stripped from the member galaxies of the group , which gets trapped in the group potential .
It represents an efficient tool for the determination of the stage of dynamical evolution of such structures and for mapping the gravitational potential of the group .
Detecting this kind of low surface brightness structure ( about 1 % above the sky level ) is a difficult task , which is subject to many problems like the modeling of stars and galaxy and sky subtraction .
To overcome these problems , we apply a new method , the wavelet technique OV_WAV , with which these low surface brightness structures can be revealed and analyzed by separating different components according to their spatial characteristic sizes ( allowing the study of the point sources , galaxies and diffuse envelope separately ) .
We have analyzed 3 of the of the Hickson Compact Groups Catalogue ( HCG 79 , HCG 88 and HCG 95 ) and were able to detect this diffuse component in two of the studied groups : HCG 79 , where the diffuse light corresponds to 46 \pm 11 \% of the total B band luminosity and HCG 95 , where the fraction is 11 \pm 26 \% .
HCG 88 had no component detected , as expected by its estimated early evolutionary stage .