Globular clusters of NGC 3115 in the near-infrared (original) (raw)
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The Astrophysical Journal, 2011
One of the conundrums in extragalactic astronomy is the discrepancy in observed metallicity distribution functions (MDFs) between the two prime stellar components of early-type galaxies-globular clusters (GCs) and halo field stars. This is generally taken as evidence of highly decoupled evolutionary histories between GC systems and their parent galaxies. Here we show, however, that new developments in linking the observed GC colors to their intrinsic metallicities suggest nonlinear color-to-metallicity conversions, which translate observed color distributions into strongly peaked, unimodal MDFs with broad metal-poor tails. Remarkably, the inferred GC MDFs are similar to the MDFs of resolved field stars in nearby elliptical galaxies and those produced by chemical evolution models of galaxies. The GC MDF shape, characterized by a sharp peak with a metal-poor tail, indicates a virtually continuous chemical enrichment with a relatively short timescale. The characteristic shape emerges across three orders of magnitude in the host galaxy mass, suggesting a universal process of chemical enrichment among various GC systems. Given that GCs are bluer than field stars within the same galaxy, it is plausible that the chemical enrichment processes of GCs ceased somewhat earlier than that of the field stellar population, and if so, GCs preferentially trace the major, vigorous mode of star formation events in galactic formation. We further suggest a possible systematic age difference among GC systems, in that the GC systems in more luminous galaxies are older. This is consistent with the downsizing paradigm whereby stars of brighter galaxies, on average, formed earlier than those of dimmer galaxies; this additionally supports the similar nature shared by GCs and field stars. Although the sample used in this study (the Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys/Wide Field Channel, WFPC2, and WFC3 photometry for the GC systems in the Virgo galaxy cluster) confines our discussion to R R e for giant ellipticals and 10 R e for normal ellipticals, our findings suggest that GC systems and their parent galaxies have shared a more common origin than previously thought, and hence greatly simplify theories of galaxy formation.
The Astrophysical Journal, 2006
We present the color distributions of globular cluster (GC) systems for 100 Virgo cluster earlytype galaxies observed in the ACS Virgo Cluster Survey, the deepest and most homogeneous survey of this kind to date. While the color distributions of individual GC systems can show significant variations from one another, their general properties are consistent with continuous trends across galaxy luminosity, color, and stellar mass. On average, galaxies at all luminosities in our study (−22 < M B < −15) appear to have bimodal or asymmetric GC color distributions. Almost all galaxies possess a component of metal-poor GCs, with the average fraction of metal-rich GCs ranging from 15 to 60%. The colors of both subpopulations correlate with host galaxy luminosity and color, with the red GCs having a steeper slope. The steeper correlation seen in the mean color of the entire GC system is driven by the increasing fraction of metal-rich GCs for more luminous galaxies.
The ACS Virgo Cluster Survey. XIV. Analysis of Color-Magnitude Relations in Globular Cluster Systems
Astrophysical Journal, 2006
We examine the correlation between globular cluster (GC) color and magnitude using HST/ACS imaging for a sample of 79 early-type galaxies (-21.7<M_B<-15.2 mag) with accurate SBF distances from the ACS Virgo Cluster Survey. Using the KMM mixture modeling algorithm, we find a highly significant correlation, d(g-z)/dz = -0.037 +- 0.004, between color and magnitude for the subpopulation of blue GCs in the co-added GC color-magnitude diagram of the three brightest Virgo galaxies (M49, M87 and M60): brighter GCs are redder than their fainter counterparts. For the single GC systems of M87 and M60, we find similar correlations; M49 does not appear to show a significant trend. There is no correlation between (g-z) and M_z for GCs of the red subpopulation. The correlation d(g-z)/dg for the blue subpopulation is much weaker than d(g-z)/dz. Using Monte Carlo simulations, we attribute this to the fact that the blue subpopulation in M_g extends to higher luminosities than the red subpopulation, which biases the KMM fits. The correlation between color and M_z thus is a real effect. This conclusion is supported by biweight fits to the same color distributions. We identify two environmental dependencies of the color-magnitude relation: (1) the slope decreases in significance with decreasing galaxy luminosity; and (2) the slope is stronger for GCs at smaller galactocentric distances. We examine several mechanisms that might give rise to the observed color-magnitude relation: (1) presence of contaminators; (2) accretion of GCs from low-mass galaxies; (3) stochastic effects; (4) capture of field stars by individual GCs; and (5) GC self-enrichment. We conclude that self-enrichment and field-star capture, or a combination of these processes, offer the most promising means of explaining our observations.
The Astrophysical Journal, 1978
New infrared observations of globular clusters have been obtained which show that both infrared and optical colors are strongly correlated with metallicity and which provide an empirical calibration of abundance effects in composite stellar systems. Models have been constructed, based on the isochrones of Ciardullo and Demarque, with Z-values between 0.0001 and 0.04, and slope of the initial mass function s between 0 and 4. Metal-poor models with s < 2.35 (the Salpeter function) give good agreement with the empirical calibration. Metal-rich models are compared with observations of the central regions of early-type galaxies, and imply that galaxies which have-19 > M v >-23 correspond to a range in metallicity of 0.0 < [M/H] < +0.3. Models with s = 2.35 adequately fit the observations; proper accounting of metallicity effects on narrow-band infrared features does not require s < 2, as previously published models have suggested. An upper limit on s of 3.2 is determined. Subject headings: cluster: globular-galaxies: stellar content-stars: abundances
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2011
We present a large sample of over 200 integrated-light spectra of confirmed globular clusters (GCs) associated with the Sombrero (M104) galaxy taken with the Deep Imaging Multi-Object Spectrograph (DEIMOS) instrument on the Keck telescope. A significant fraction of the spectra have signal-to-noise ratio levels high enough to allow measurements of GC metallicities using the method of Brodie & Huchra. We find a distribution of spectroscopic metallicities in the range −2.2 < [Fe/H] < +0.1 that is bimodal, with peaks at [Fe/H] ∼ −1.4 and −0.6. Thus, the GC system of the Sombrero galaxy, like a few other galaxies now studied in detail, reveals a bimodal spectroscopic metallicity distribution supporting the long-held belief that colour bimodality reflects two metallicity subpopulations. This further suggests that the transformation from optical colour to metallicity for old stellar populations, such as GCs, is not strongly non-linear. We also explore the radial and magnitude distribution with metallicity for GC subpopulations but small number statistics prevent any clear trends in these distributions.
The Astrophysical Journal, 2006
We present new (B, I) photometry for the globular cluster systems in eight Brightest Cluster Galaxies (BCGs), obtained with the ACS/WFC camera on the Hubble Space Telescope. In the very rich cluster systems that reside within these giant galaxies, we find that all have strongly bimodal color distributions that are clearly resolved by the metallicity-sensitive (B −I) index. Furthermore, the mean colors and internal color range of the blue subpopulation are remarkably similar from one galaxy to the next, to well within the ±0.02 − 0.03-mag uncertainties in the foreground reddenings and photometric zeropoints. By contrast, the mean color and internal color range for the red subpopulation differ from one galaxy to the next by twice as much as the blue population. All the BCGs show population gradients, with much higher relative numbers of red clusters within 5 kpc of their centers, consistent with their having formed at later times than the blue, metalpoor population. A striking new feature of the color distributions emerging from our data is that for the brightest clusters (M I < −10.5) the color distribution becomes broad and less obviously bimodal. This effect was first noticed by for the Fornax giant NGC 1399; our data suggest that it may be a characteristic of many BCGs and perhaps other large galaxies. Our data indicate that the blue (metal-poor) clusters brighter than M I ≃ −10 become progressively redder with increasing luminosity, following a mass/metallicity scaling relation Z ∼ M 0.55 . A basically similar relation has been found for M87 by . We argue that these GCS characteristics are consistent with a hierarchical-merging galaxy formation picture in which the metal-poor clusters formed in protogalactic clouds or dense starburst complexes with gas masses in the range 10 7 − 10 10 M ⊙ , but where the more massive clusters on average formed in bigger clouds with deeper potential wells where more preenrichment could occur.
Multi-color photometry in wide field of the Galactic globular cluster NGC 3201
Astronomy & Astrophysics, 2009
Aims. This paper aims at further studying one of the nearby Galactic globular clusters (GCs), NGC 3201. It is known to experience notable irregular variability of reddening across its face. By relying on our previous studies and findings and by developing them, we focus on the brighter sequences of the color-magnitude diagram (CMD) and on the cluster's characteristics. Methods. We carried out and analyzed new multi-color photometry of NGC 3201 in UBVI reaching below the turnoff point in all passbands in a fairly large cluster field, about 14 × 14. To achieve more reliable results and conclusions, we reduced the negative impact of the irregularly varying reddening and contamination by field stars. Results. With this aim we first estimated mean reddening in different zones of the studied cluster field and then took its variations into account, by reducing them to the same level. We estimated metallicity of NGC 3201 using a new metallicity indicator related to U-based CMDs, recently proposed by us. We find [Fe/H] ZW = −1.54 ± 0.12 dex, which falls between extreme estimates of the cluster's metallicity obtained using different methods or indicators. Also, the location of the RGB bump on the branch corresponds to [Fe/H] ZW = −1.46 ± 0.15 dex. We isolate 73 probable blue straggler (BS) candidates, the largest population found in NGC 3201 so far. They are more centrally concentrated than the lower red giants at the 99.2% level. Their position in the two-color diagram assumes that presumably none of them belongs to BSa of collisional origin. The luminosity function (LF) of the RGB and its features in the low part of the branch are examined and discussed. We also resolve some of the contradictory results of previous publications.
The Astronomical Journal, 2010
The Ca ii triplet (CaT) feature in the near-infrared has been employed as a metallicity indicator for individual stars as well as integrated light of Galactic globular clusters (GCs) and galaxies with varying degrees of success, and sometimes puzzling results. Using the DEIMOS multi-object spectrograph on Keck we obtain a sample of 144 integrated light spectra of GCs around the brightest group galaxy NGC 1407 to test whether the CaT index can be used as a metallicity indicator for extragalactic GCs. Different sets of single stellar population models make different predictions for the behavior of the CaT as a function of metallicity. In this work, the metallicities of the GCs around NGC 1407 are obtained from CaT index values using an empirical conversion. The measured CaT/metallicity distributions show unexpected features, the most remarkable being that the brightest red and blue GCs have similar CaT values despite their large difference in mean color. Suggested explanations for this behavior in the NGC 1407 GC system are: 1) the CaT may be affected by a population of hot blue stars, 2) the CaT may saturate earlier than predicted by the models, and/or 3) color may not trace metallicity linearly. Until these possibilities are understood, the use of the CaT as a metallicity indicator for the integrated spectra of extragalactic GCs will remain problematic.
An optical/near-infrared survey of GCs in early-type galaxies
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union, 2009
Optical/near-infrared observations of 14 globular cluster (GC) systems in early-type galaxies are presented. We investigate the recent claims (Yoon et al. 2006) of colour bimodality in GC systems being an artefact of the nonlinear colour–metallicity transformation driven by horizontal-branch morphology. Taking advantage of the fact that the combination of optical and near-infrared colours can, in principle, break the age/metallicity degeneracy we also analyse age distributions in these systems.