paper

Globular Clusters and Spur Clusters in NGC 4921, the Brightest Spiral Galaxy in the Coma Cluster

arXiv:1601.03047 · doi:10.3847/0004-637X/819/1/77

Abstract

We resolve a significant fraction of globular clusters (GCs) in NGC 4921, the brightest spiral galaxy in Coma. Also we find a number of extended bright star clusters (star complexes) in the spur region of the arms. The latter are much brighter and bluer than those in the normal star-forming region, being as massive as 3x10^5 M_odot. The color distribution of the GCs in this galaxy is found to be bimodal. The turnover magnitudes of the luminosity functions (LF) of the blue (metal-poor) GCs (0.70<(V-I)<1.05) in the halo are estimated to be V(max) =27.11+-0.09 mag and I(max)=26.21+-0.11 mag. We obtain similar values for NGC 4923, a companion S0 galaxy, and two Coma cD galaxies (NGC 4874 and NGC 4889). The mean value for the turnover magnitudes of these four galaxies is I(max)=26.25+-0.03 mag. Adopting M_I (max) = -8.56+-0.09 mag for the metal-poor GCs, we determine the mean distance to the four Coma galaxies, 91+-4 Mpc. Combining this and the Coma radial velocity, we derive a value of the Hubble constant, H_0 = 77.9+-3.6 km/s/Mpc. We estimate the GC specific frequency of NGC 4921 to be S_N = 1.29+-0.25, close to the values for early-type galaxies. This indicates that NGC 4921 is in the transition phase to S0s.

17 pages, 14 figures, 6 tables, accepted for publication in ApJ

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