A Supra-galactic Conundrum: The Globular Clusters Colour Pattern in Virgo Galaxies
Abstract
The presence of systematic modulations in the colour distributions in composite samples of globular clusters associated with galaxies in the Virgo and Fornax clusters has been reported in a previous work. In this paper we focus on the 27 brightest galaxies in Virgo, and in particular on NGC 4486, the dominant system in terms of globular cluster population. The new analysis includes 7600 cluster candidates brighter than g =24.5 (or T1 23.70). The results indicate the presence of the characteristic Virgo pattern in these galaxies and that this pattern is detectable over a galactocentric range from 3 to 30 Kpc in N GC 4486. This finding gives more support to the idea that the pattern has been the result of an external, still not identified phenomenon, capable of synchronizing the cluster formation in a kind of viral process, and on supra-galactic scales (also having, presumably, an impact on the overall star formation history in the entire Virgo cluster).
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1810.04784,
title = {A Supra-galactic Conundrum: The Globular Clusters Colour Pattern in Virgo Galaxies},
author = {Juan C. Forte and Sergio A. Cellone and María E. De Rossi and Carlos G. Escudero and Favio R. Faifer and Douglas Geisler and Nélida M. González and María C. Scalia and Leandro A. Sesto and Analía V. Smith Castelli and E. Irene Vega},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1810.04784},
year = {2018}
}
Comments
16 pages, 39 figures