Tidal Stripping of Globular Clusters in the Virgo Cluster

Abstract

With the aim of finding evidence of tidal stripping of globular clusters (GCs) we analysed a sample of 13 elliptical galaxies taken from the ACS Virgo Cluster Survey (VCS). These galaxies belong to the main concentration of the Virgo cluster (VC) and present absolute magnitudes $-18.5<M_z<-22.5$. We used the public GC catalog of Jordán et al. (2008) and separated the GC population into metal poor (blue) and metal rich (red) according to their integrated colors. The galaxy properties were taken from \citet{Peng:2008}. We found that: 1) The specific frequencies ($S_N$) of total and blue GC populations increase as a function of the projected galaxy distances $r_p$ to M87. A similar result is observed when 3-dimensional distances $r_{3D}$ are used. The same behaviours are found if the analysis are made using the number of GCs per $10^9\Msun$ ($T$). The correlations with the clustocentric distance of the host galaxy are interpreted as evidence of GCs stripping due to tidal forces. 2) No correlation is found between the slope of GC density profiles of host galaxies and the galaxy distance to M87 (Virgo central galaxy). 3) We also computed the local density of GCs (${\rho }_{out}$) located further than $6.2 \kpc$ from the galaxy center for nine galaxies of our sample. We find that the GC population around most of these galaxies is mainly composed of blue GCs. Our results suggest that the number and the fraction of blue and red GCs observed in elliptical galaxies located near the centers of massive clusters, could be significantly different from the underlying GC population. These differences could be explained by tidal stripping effects that occur as galaxies approach the centers of clusters.

arXiv commentAccepted to the Astrophysical Journal

References in corpus (28)

• Galaxy Harassment and the Evolution of Clusters of Galaxies
• The SBF Survey of Galaxy Distances. IV. SBF Magnitudes, Colors, and Distances
• The ACS Virgo Cluster Survey. XIII. SBF Distance Catalog and the Three-Dimensional Structure of the Virgo Cluster
• The ACS Virgo Cluster Survey. VI. Isophotal Analysis and the Structure of Early-Type Galaxies
• The ACS Virgo Cluster Survey IX: The Color Distributions of Globular Cluster Systems in Early-Type Galaxies
• On the Origin of Globular Cluster Systems in Elliptical and cD Galaxies
• The Formation of Giant Elliptical Galaxies and Their Globular Cluster Systems
• The ACS Virgo Cluster Survey XV. The Formation Efficiencies of Globular Clusters in Early-Type Galaxies: The Effects of Mass and Environment
• The ACS Virgo Cluster Survey. I. Introduction to the Survey
• The ACS Virgo Cluster Survey X. Half-light Radii of Globular Clusters in Early-Type Galaxies: Environmental Dependencies and a Standard Ruler for Distance Estimation
• Dynamics of the Globular Cluster System Associated with M87 (NGC 4486). II. Analysis
• Dynamics of the Globular Cluster System Associated with M49 (NGC4472): Cluster Orbital Properties and the Distribution of Dark Matter
• The Colors of Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy Globular Cluster Systems, Nuclei and Stellar Halos
• Globular Clusters in Virgo Ellipticals: Unexpected Results for Giants, Dwarfs, and Nuclei from ACS Imaging
• Dynamical Friction in dE Globular Cluster Systems
• Large-scale study of the NGC 1399 globular cluster system in Fornax
• The Globular Cluster Luminosity Function and Specific Frequency in Dwarf Elliptical Galaxies
• The Specific Globular Cluster Frequencies of Dwarf Elliptical Galaxies from the Hubble Space Telescope
• The central region of the Fornax cluster -- III. Dwarf galaxies, globular clusters, and cD halo - are there interrelations?
• Intracluster Globular Clusters
• The ACS Virgo Cluster Survey II. Data Reduction Procedures
• Dynamical evolution of globular cluster systems in clusters of galaxies I. The case of NGC 1404 in the Fornax cluster
• Dynamics of the Globular Cluster System Associated with M87 (NGC 4486). I. New CFHT MOS Spectroscopy and the Composite Database
• A Point Source Excess in Abell 1185: Intergalactic Globular Clusters?
• On spatial distributions of old globular clusters in clusters of galaxies
• On the Formation of Galaxy Halos: Comparing NGC 5128 and the Local Group Members
• Shrinking of Cluster Ellipticals: a Tidal Stripping explanation and Implications for the Intra-Cluster Light
• Globular Cluster Systems of Spirals

Cited by in corpus (9)

• The SAGES Legacy Unifying Globulars and GalaxieS Survey (SLUGGS): Sample definition, methods, and initial results
• The Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey. VIII. The Spatial Distribution of Globular Clusters in the Virgo Cluster
• Detection of a Large Scale Structure of Intracluster Globular Clusters in the Virgo Cluster
• The correlation between the sizes of globular cluster systems and their host dark matter haloes
• Globular cluster systems as tracers of environmental effects on Virgo early-type dwarfs
• Simulating the Spatial Distribution and Kinematics of Globular Clusters within Galaxy Clusters in Illustris
• The Globular Cluster Systems of Abell 1185
• Scaling relations for globular cluster systems in early-type galaxies. II. Is there an environmental dependence?
• Intra-cluster Globular Clusters in a Simulated Galaxy Cluster