Wide-Field Multiband Photometry of Globular Cluster Systems in the Fornax Galaxy Cluster

Abstract

We present wide-field multiband photometry of globular cluster (GC) systems in NGC 1399, NGC 1404, and NGC 1387 located at the central region of the Fornax galaxy cluster. Observation was carried out through U, B, V, and I bands, which marks one of the widest and deepest U-band studies on extragalactic GC systems. The present U-band photometry enables us to significantly reduce the contamination by a factor of two for faint sources (Vo~23.5). The main results based on some 2000 GC candidates around NGC 1399, NGC 1404, and NGC 1387 are as follows: (1) the GC system in each galaxy exhibits bimodal color distributions in all colors examined, but the shape of color histograms varies systematically depending on colors; (2) NGC 1399 shows that the mean colors of both blue and red GCs become bluer with increasing galactocentric radius; (3) NGC 1399 shows overabundance of GCs in the directions of NGC 1404 and NGC 1387, indicating their ongoing interactions; and (4) NGC 1399 also exhibits a ~0.5' offset between the center of the inner GC distribution and the galaxy's optical center, suggesting that NGC 1399 is not yet dynamically relaxed and may be undergoing merger events.

21 pages, 15 figures, 6 Tables, published in ApJ January 2013

References in corpus (7)

• The ACS Fornax Cluster Survey. I. Introduction to the Survey and Data Reduction Procedures
• Explaining the Color Distributions of Globular Cluster Systems in Elliptical Galaxies
• Large-scale study of the NGC 1399 globular cluster system in Fornax
• The ACS Virgo Cluster Survey. XIV. Analysis of Color-Magnitude Relations in Globular Cluster Systems
• On the Metallicity-Color Relations and Bimodal Color Distributions in Extragalactic Globular Cluster Systems
• A Quantitative Link Between Globular Clusters and the Stellar Halos in Elliptical Galaxies
• Yonsei Evolutionary Population Synthesis (YEPS) Model. I. Spectroscopic Evolution of Simple Stellar Populations

Cited by in corpus (22)

• The Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey. VIII. The Spatial Distribution of Globular Clusters in the Virgo Cluster
• The Next Generation Fornax Survey (NGFS): II. The Central Dwarf Galaxy Population
• The Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey - Infrared (NGVS-IR): I. A new Near-UV/Optical/Near-IR Globular Cluster selection tool
• Globular Cluster Systems in Brightest Cluster Galaxies. III: Beyond Bimodality
• The Extended Spatial Distribution of Globular Clusters in the Core of the Fornax Cluster
• The Next Generation Fornax Survey (NGFS): IV. Mass and Age Bimodality of Nuclear Clusters in the Fornax Core Region
• The Fornax Deep Survey (FDS) with the VST XI. The search for signs of preprocessing between the Fornax main cluster and Fornax A group
• VEGAS-SSS II: Comparing the globular cluster systems in NGC3115 and NGC1399 using VEGAS and FDS survey data
• Globular Cluster Systems in Brightest Cluster Galaxies. II: NGC 6166
• The Fornax Deep Survey with VST. IX. The catalog of sources in the FDS area, with an example study for globular clusters and background galaxies
• The Next Generation Fornax Survey (NGFS): III. Revealing the Spatial Substructure of the Dwarf Galaxy Population inside half of Fornax's Virial Radius
• Peculiar compact stellar systems in the Fornax cluster
• The Globular Cluster System of the Coma cD Galaxy NGC 4874 from Hubble Space Telescope ACS and WFC3/IR Imaging
• A Photometric Survey of Globular Cluster Systems in Brightest Cluster Galaxies
• The SLUGGS survey: Exploring the globular cluster systems of the Leo II group and their global relationships
• Nonlinear Color-Metallicity Relations of Globular Clusters. VIII. Reproducing Color Distributions of Individual Globular Cluster Systems in the Virgo and Fornax Galaxy Clusters
• RR Lyrae Variable Stars in the Crater II Dwarf Galaxy
• Nonlinear Color-Metallicity Relations of Globular Clusters. IV. Testing the Nonlinearity Scenario for Color Bimodality via HST/WFC3 u-band Photometry of M84 (NGC 4374)
• Chandra Detection of Intra-cluster X-ray Sources in Fornax
• Spatial Structures in the Globular Cluster Distribution of Fornax Cluster Galaxies
• Nonlinear Color-Metallicity Relations of Globular Clusters. IX. Different Radial Number Density Profiles between Blue and Red Clusters
• Nonlinear Color-Metallicity Relations of Globular Clusters. XI. Nonlinearity Effect Revealed by NGC 5128 (Centaurus A) and NGC 4594 (Sombrero) Galaxies