Subscribe to the gold package and get unlimited access to Shamra Academy
Register a new userA wide-field photometric survey for extratidal tails around five metal-poor globular clusters in the Galactic halo
145
0
0.0
(
0
)
Ask ChatGPT about the research
No Arabic abstract
Wide-field deep gri images obtained with the Megacam of the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) are used to investigate the spatial configuration of stars around five metal-poor globular cluster M15, M30, M53, NGC 5053, and NGC 5466, in a field-of-view ~3 degree. Applying a mask filtering algorithm to the color-magnitude diagrams of the observed stars, we sorted clusters member star candidates that are used to examine the characteristics of the spatial stellar distribution surrounding the target clusters. The smoothed surface density maps and the overlaid isodensity contours indicate that all of the five metal-poor globular clusters exhibit strong evidence of extratidal overdensity features over their tidal radii, in the form of extended tidal tails around the clusters. The orientations of the observed extratidal features show signatures of tidal tails tracing the clusters orbits, inferred from their proper motions, and effects of dynamical interactions with the Galaxy. Our findings include detections of a tidal bridge-like feature and an envelope structure around the pair of globular clusters M53 and NGC 5053. The observed radial surface density profiles of target clusters have a deviation from theoretical King models, for which the profiles show a break at 0.5~0.7r_t, extending the overdensity features out to 1.5~2r_t. Both radial surface density profiles for different angular sections and azimuthal number density profiles confirm the overdensity features of tidal tails around the five metal-poor globular clusters. Our results add further observational evidence that the observed metal-poor halo globular clusters originate from an accreted satellite system, indicative of the merging scenario of the formation of the Galactic halo.
rate research
Read More
Using the AAOmega instrument of the Anglo-Australian Telescope, we have obtained medium-resolution near-infrared spectra of 10,500 stars in two-degree fields centered on the galactic globular clusters 47 Tuc, NGC 288, M12, M30 and M55. Radial velocities and equivalent widths of the infrared Ca II triplet lines have been determined to constrain cluster membership, which in turn has been used to study the angular extent of the clusters. From the analysis of 140-1000 member stars in each cluster, we do not find extended structures that go beyond the tidal radii. For three cluster we estimate a 1% upper limit of extra-tidal red giant branch stars. We detect systemic rotation in 47 Tuc and M55.
We survey globular clusters (GCs) in M85 using $ugi$-band images of a $1^{circ} times 1^{circ}$ field obtained with the MegaCam at the 3.6 m Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. We identify 1318 GC candidates with 20.0 mag $< g_0 <$ 23.5 mag in the entire survey region. Their radial number density profile is well fit by a S{e}rsic profile with $n$ = 2.58$^{+0.43}_{-0.33}$ and effective radius $R_{rm e,GCS}$ = 4$rlap{.}{}$14 (= 22 kpc), showing that the candidates at $R < 20$ are mostly genuine GCs in M85. We estimate the total number of GCs, $N$(total) = $1216^{+82}_{-50}$, and the specific frequency, $S_N = 1.41^{+0.10}_{-0.06}$. The overall color distribution of the GCs in M85 is bimodal, but the GCs in the central region at $R < 2$ do not show a bimodal distribution clearly. The radial number density profile and surface number density map of the blue GCs (BGCs) show more extended structures than those of the red GCs (RGCs). The spatial distributions of both BGCs and RGCs are elongated, similar to that of the galaxy stellar light. The number fraction of the RGCs in the central region is much smaller compared to those in other early-type galaxies of similar luminosity. The mean $(g-i)_0$ color of the RGCs in M85 is about 0.1 mag bluer than typical values for other Virgo early-type galaxies of similar luminosity, indicating that a significant fraction of the RGCs in M85 may be younger than typical GCs. These results indicate that M85 might have undergone a major wet merger recently.
We report the results of a systematic photometric survey of the peripheral regions of a sample of fourteen globular clusters in the outer halo of the Milky Way at distances d_GC>25 kpc from the Galactic centre. The survey is aimed at searching for the remnants of the host satellite galaxies where these clusters could originally have been formed before being accreted onto the Galactic halo. The limiting surface brightness varies within our sample, but reaches muV_lim=30-32 mag arcsec^-2. For only two globular clusters (NGC 7492 and Whiting 1; already suggested to be associated with the Sagittarius galaxy) we detect extended stellar populations that cannot be associated with either the clusters themselves or with the surrounding Galactic field population. We show that the lack of substructures around globular clusters at these Galactocentric distances is still compatible with the predictions of cosmological simulations whereby in the outer halo the Galactic globular cluster system is built up through hierarchical accretion at early epochs.
Heavy elements, those produced by neutron-capture reactions, have traditionally shown no star-to-star dispersion in all but a handful of metal-poor globular clusters (GCs). Recent detections of low [Pb/Eu] ratios or upper limits in several metal-poor GCs indicate that the heavy elements in these GCs were produced exclusively by an r-process. Reexamining GC heavy element abundances from the literature, we find unmistakable correlations between the [La/Fe] and [Eu/Fe] ratios in 4 metal-poor GCs (M5, M15, M92, and NGC 3201), only 2 of which were known previously. This indicates that the total r-process abundances vary star-to-star (by factors of 2-6) relative to Fe within each GC. We also identify potential dispersion in two other GCs (M3 and M13). Several GCs (M12, M80, and NGC 6752) show no evidence of r-process dispersion. The r-process dispersion is not correlated with the well-known light element dispersion, indicating it was present in the gas throughout the duration of star formation. The observations available at present suggest that star-to-star r-process dispersion within metal-poor GCs may be a common but not ubiquitous phenomenon that is neither predicted by nor accounted for in current models of GC formation and evolution.
It has been a long-standing open question why observed globular cluster (GC) populations of different metallicities differ in their ages and spatial distributions, with metal-poor GCs being the older and radially more extended of the two. We use the suite of 25 Milky Way-mass cosmological zoom-in simulations from the E-MOSAICS project, which self-consistently model the formation and evolution of stellar clusters and their host galaxies, to understand the properties of observed GC populations. We find that the different ages and spatial distributions of metal-poor and metal-rich GCs are the result of regular cluster formation at high redshift in the context of hierarchical galaxy assembly. We also find that metallicity on its own is not a good tracer of accretion, and other properties, such as kinematics, need to be considered.
Log in to be able to interact and post comments
comments
Fetching comments
Sign in to be able to follow your search criteria
