No Arabic abstract
We investigate structural properties of old, metal-poor globular clusters (GCs) formed at high redshifts (z>6) and located inside and outside virialized galaxy-scale halos in clusters of galaxies with the total masses of M_CL based on high-resolution cosmological simulations with models of GC formation. We mainly derive the parameter dependences of physical properties of intracluster GCs (ICGCs) based on the results of 14 models. Our principle results are summarized as follows. (1) The projected radial density profiles (Sigma_GC) of ICGCs in clusters with different M_CL can be diverse, though ICGCs have inhomogeneous, asymmetric, and somewhat elongated distributions in most models. If Sigma_GC (R) ~ R^alpha, alpha ranges from -1.5 to -2.5 for GCs in clusters. (2) Although total number of GCs within the central 0.05 Mpc (N_GC,0.05) and 0.2 Mpc (N_GC,0.2) are diverse in different clusters, they can depend weakly on M_CL in such a way that both N_GC,0.05 and N_GC,0.2 are likely to be larger for clusters with larger M_CL. (3) Total number of GCs per cluster masses (specific frequency of GCs for clusters of galaxies) are more likely to be larger in more massive clusters, mainly because a larger number of earlier virialized objects can be located in more massive clusters. (4) Spatial distributions of old GCs in clusters can depend on the truncation epoch of GC formation (z_trun) such that they can be steeper and more compact in the models with higher z_trun. (5) The mean metallicity of ICGCs in a cluster can be smaller than that of GCs within the cluster member galaxy-scale halos by ~ 0.3 in [Fe/H]. Metallicity distribution functions (MDFs) of ICGCs show peak values around [Fe/H] ~ -1.6 and do not have remarkable bimodality.
We present a study of the old globular clusters (GC) using archival F606W and F814W HST/ACS images of 19 Magellanic-type dwarf Irregular (dIrr) galaxies found in nearby (2 - 8 Mpc) associations of only dwarf galaxies. All dIrrs have absolute magnitudes fainter than or equal to the SMC (Mv = -16.2 mag). We detect 50 GC candidates in 13 dIrrs, of which 37 have (V-I) colors consistent with blue (old, metal-poor) GCs (bGC). The luminosity function (LF) of the bGCs in our sample peaks at Mv = -7.41 +/- 0.22 mag, consistent with other galaxy types. The width of the LF is sigma = 1.79 +/- 0.31 which is typical for dIrrs, but broader than the typical width in massive galaxies. The half-light radii and ellipticities of the GCs in our sample (rh ~ 3.3 pc, e ~ 0.1) are similar to those of old GCs in the Magellanic Clouds and to those of Old Halo (OH) GCs in our Galaxy, but not as extended and spherical as the Galactic Young Halo (YH) GCs (rh ~ 7.7 pc, e ~ 0.06). The e distribution shows a turnover rather than a power law as observed for the Galactic GCs. This might suggest that GCs in dIrrs are kinematically young and not fully relaxed yet. The present-day specific frequencies (SN) span a broad range: 0.3 < SN < 11. Assuming a dissipationless age fading of the galaxy light, the SN values would increase by a factor of ~ 2.5 to 16, comparable with values for early-type dwarfs (dE/dSphs). A bright central GC candidate, similar to nuclear clusters of dEs, is observed in one of our dIrrs: NGC 1959. This nuclear GC has luminosity, color, and structural parameters similar to that of wCen and M54, suggesting that the latter might have their origin in the central regions of similar Galactic building blocks. A comparison between properties of bGCs and Galactic YH GCs, suspected to have originated from similar dIrrs, is performed.
For the full galaxy mass range, we find that previously observed trends of globular cluster (GC) system scaling parameters (number, luminosity or mass of all GCs in a galaxy normalized to the host galaxy luminosity or mass, e.g. S_L) as a function of galaxy mass, holds irrespective of galaxy type or environment. The S_L-value of early-type galaxies is, on average, twice that of late-types. We derive theoretical predictions which describe remarkably well the observed GC system scaling parameter distributions given an assumed GC formation efficiency ({eta}), i.e. the ratio of total mass in GCs to galaxy halo mass. It has a mean value of {eta}=5.5e-5 , and an increasing scatter toward low galaxy mass. The excess {eta}-values of some massive galaxies compared to expectations from the mean model prediction, may be attributed to an efficient GC formation, inefficient production of field stars, accretion of low-mass high-{eta} galaxies or likely a mixture of all these effects.
The features and make up of the population of X-ray sources in Galactic star clusters reflect the properties of the underlying stellar environment. Cluster age, mass, stellar encounter rate, binary frequency, metallicity, and maybe other properties as well, determine to what extent we can expect a contribution to the cluster X-ray emission from low-mass X-ray binaries, millisecond pulsars, cataclysmic variables, and magnetically active binaries. Sensitive X-ray observations with XMM-Newton and certainly Chandra have yielded new insights into the nature of individual sources and the effects of dynamical encounters. They have also provided a new perspective on the collective X-ray properties of clusters, in which the X-ray emissivities of globular clusters and old open clusters can be compared to each other and to those of other environments. I will review our current understanding of cluster X-ray sources, focusing on star clusters older than about 1 Gyr, illustrated with recent results.
Using high-resolution N-body simulations, we examine whether a major dry merger mitigates the difference in the radial density distributions between red and blue globular clusters (GCs). To this end, we study the relation between the density slope of the GCs in merger progenitors and that in a merger remnant, when the density distribution is described by $n_{rm GC}propto r^{-alpha}$. We also study how our results depend on the merger orbit and the size of the core radius of the initial GC density distribution. We find that a major dry merger makes the GC profile flatter, and the steeper initial GC profile leads to more significant flattening, especially if the initial slope is steeper than $alphasim3.5$. Our result suggests that if there is a major dry merger of elliptical galaxies whose red GCs have a steeper radial profile than the blue GCs, as currently observed, and their slopes are steeper than $alphasim3.5$, the difference in the slopes between two populations becomes smaller after dry mergers. Therefore, the observed slopes of red and blue GCs can be a diagnostic of the importance of dry merger. The current observational data show that the red and blue GCs have more comparable and shallower slopes in some luminous galaxies, which may indicate that they have experienced dry mergers.
Data are presently available on the luminosities and half-light radii of 101 globular clusters associated with low-luminosity parent galaxies. The luminosity distribution of globulars embedded in dwarf galaxies having $M_{v} > -16$ is found to differ dramatically from that for globular clusters surrounding giant host galaxies with $M_{v} < -16$. The luminosity distribution of globular clusters in giant galaxies peaks at $M_{v} sim -7.5$, whereas that for dwarfs is found to increases monotonically down to the completeness limit of the cluster data at $M_{v} sim -5.0$. Unexpectedly, the power law distribution of the luminosities of globular clusters hosted by dwarf galaxies is seen to be much flatter than the that of bright unevolved part of the luminosity distribution of globular clusters associated with giant galaxies. The specific frequency of globular clusters that are fainter than $M_{v} = -7.5$ is found to be particularly high in dwarf galaxies. The luminosity distribution of the LMC globular clusters is similar to that in giant galaxies, and differs from those of the globulars in dwarf galaxies. The present data appear to show no strong dependence of globular cluster luminosity on the morphological types of their parent galaxies. No attempt is made to explain the unexpected discovery that the luminosity distribution of globular clusters is critically dependent on parent galaxy luminosity (mass?), but insensitive to the morphological type of their host galaxy.