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The galactic acceleration scale is imprinted on globular cluster systems of early-type galaxies of most masses and on red and blue globular cluster subpopulations

Bílek, Michal ; Hilker, Michael ; Renaud, Florent LU ; Richtler, Tom ; Chaturvedi, Avinash and Samurović, Srdjan (2024) In Astronomy and Astrophysics 682.
Abstract

Context. Globular clusters (GCs) carry information about the formation histories and gravitational fields of their host galaxies. It was found before that the radial profiles of the volume number density of GCs in GC systems (GCSs) follow broken power laws, while the breaks occur approximately at the a0 radii. These are the radii at which the gravitational fields of the galaxies equal the galactic acceleration scale a0 = 1.2 × 10-10 ms-2 known from the radial acceleration relation or the MOND theory of modified dynamics. Aims. Our main goals here are to explore whether the above results hold true for galaxies of a wider mass range and for the red and blue GC subpopulations. Methods. We exploited catalogs of photometric GC candidates in... (More)

Context. Globular clusters (GCs) carry information about the formation histories and gravitational fields of their host galaxies. It was found before that the radial profiles of the volume number density of GCs in GC systems (GCSs) follow broken power laws, while the breaks occur approximately at the a0 radii. These are the radii at which the gravitational fields of the galaxies equal the galactic acceleration scale a0 = 1.2 × 10-10 ms-2 known from the radial acceleration relation or the MOND theory of modified dynamics. Aims. Our main goals here are to explore whether the above results hold true for galaxies of a wider mass range and for the red and blue GC subpopulations. Methods. We exploited catalogs of photometric GC candidates in the Fornax galaxy cluster based on ground and space observations and a new catalog of spectroscopic GCs of NGC1399, the central galaxy of the cluster. For every galaxy, we obtained the parameters of the broken power-law density by fitting the on-sky distribution of the GC candidates, while allowing for a constant density of contaminants. The logarithmic stellar masses of our galaxy sample span 8.0-11.4 M⊙. Results. All investigated GCSs with a suficient number of members show broken power-law density profiles. This holds true for the total GC population and the blue and red subpopulations. The inner and outer slopes and the break radii agree well for the different GC populations. The break radii agree with the a0 radii typically within a factor of two for all GC color subpopulations. The outer slopes correlate better with the a0 radii than with the galactic stellar masses. The break radii of NGC1399 vary in azimuth, such that they are greater toward and against the direction to NGC1404, which tidally interacts with NGC1399.

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author
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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
galaxies: elliptical and lenticular, cD, galaxies: evolution, galaxies: star clusters: general, galaxies: structure, gravitation, methods: data analysis
in
Astronomy and Astrophysics
volume
682
article number
A111
publisher
EDP Sciences
external identifiers
  • scopus:85184916424
ISSN
0004-6361
DOI
10.1051/0004-6361/202244093
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
afcbeea6-c147-4d69-8312-eacb5ae60ddb
date added to LUP
2024-02-22 15:46:59
date last changed
2024-02-22 15:46:59
@article{afcbeea6-c147-4d69-8312-eacb5ae60ddb,
  abstract     = {{<p>Context. Globular clusters (GCs) carry information about the formation histories and gravitational fields of their host galaxies. It was found before that the radial profiles of the volume number density of GCs in GC systems (GCSs) follow broken power laws, while the breaks occur approximately at the a0 radii. These are the radii at which the gravitational fields of the galaxies equal the galactic acceleration scale a0 = 1.2 × 10-10 ms-2 known from the radial acceleration relation or the MOND theory of modified dynamics. Aims. Our main goals here are to explore whether the above results hold true for galaxies of a wider mass range and for the red and blue GC subpopulations. Methods. We exploited catalogs of photometric GC candidates in the Fornax galaxy cluster based on ground and space observations and a new catalog of spectroscopic GCs of NGC1399, the central galaxy of the cluster. For every galaxy, we obtained the parameters of the broken power-law density by fitting the on-sky distribution of the GC candidates, while allowing for a constant density of contaminants. The logarithmic stellar masses of our galaxy sample span 8.0-11.4 M⊙. Results. All investigated GCSs with a suficient number of members show broken power-law density profiles. This holds true for the total GC population and the blue and red subpopulations. The inner and outer slopes and the break radii agree well for the different GC populations. The break radii agree with the a0 radii typically within a factor of two for all GC color subpopulations. The outer slopes correlate better with the a0 radii than with the galactic stellar masses. The break radii of NGC1399 vary in azimuth, such that they are greater toward and against the direction to NGC1404, which tidally interacts with NGC1399.</p>}},
  author       = {{Bílek, Michal and Hilker, Michael and Renaud, Florent and Richtler, Tom and Chaturvedi, Avinash and Samurović, Srdjan}},
  issn         = {{0004-6361}},
  keywords     = {{galaxies: elliptical and lenticular, cD; galaxies: evolution; galaxies: star clusters: general; galaxies: structure; gravitation; methods: data analysis}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{02}},
  publisher    = {{EDP Sciences}},
  series       = {{Astronomy and Astrophysics}},
  title        = {{The galactic acceleration scale is imprinted on globular cluster systems of early-type galaxies of most masses and on red and blue globular cluster subpopulations}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202244093}},
  doi          = {{10.1051/0004-6361/202244093}},
  volume       = {{682}},
  year         = {{2024}},
}