Intracluster Globular Clusters
Abstract
Globular cluster populations of supergiant elliptical galaxies are known to vary widely, from extremely populous systems like that of UGC 9799, the centrally dominant galaxy in Abell 2052, to globular-cluster-poor galaxies such as NGC 5629 in Abell 2666. Here we propose that these variations point strongly to the existence of a population of globular clusters that are not bound to individual galaxies, but rather move freely throughout the cores of clusters of galaxies. Such intracluster globular clusters may have originated as tidally stripped debris from galaxy interactions and mergers, or alternatively they may have formed in situ in some scenarios of globular cluster formation.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/9508141,
title = {Intracluster Globular Clusters},
author = {Michael J. West and Patrick Cote and Christine Jones and William Forman and Ronald O. Marzke},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/9508141},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
9 pages, uuencoded compressed postscript. Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters