The ACS Fornax Cluster Survey. III. Globular Cluster Specific Frequencies of Early-Type Galaxies

Abstract

The globular cluster (GC) specific frequency ($S_N$), defined as the number of GCs per unit galactic luminosity, represents the efficiency of GC formation (and survival) compared to field stars. Despite the naive expectation that star cluster formation should scale directly with star formation, this efficiency varies widely across galaxies. To explore this variation we measure the z-band GC specific frequency ($S_{N,z}$) for 43 early-type galaxies (ETGs) from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST)/Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) Fornax Cluster Survey. Combined with the homogenous measurements of $S_{N,z}$ in 100 ETGs from the HST/ACS Virgo Cluster Survey from Peng et al. (2008), we investigate the dependence of $S_{N,z}$ on mass and environment over a range of galaxy properties. We find that $S_{N,z}$ behaves similarly in the two galaxy clusters, despite the clusters' order-of-magnitude difference in mass density. The $S_{N,z}$ is low in intermediate-mass ETGs ($-20<M_z<-23$), and increases with galaxy luminosity. It is elevated at low masses, on average, but with a large scatter driven by galaxies in dense environments. The densest environments with the strongest tidal forces appear to strip the GC systems of low-mass galaxies. However, in low-mass galaxies that are not in strong tidal fields, denser environments correlate with enhanced GC formation efficiencies. Normalizing by inferred halo masses, the GC mass fraction, $\eta =(3.36\pm 0.2)\times 10^{-5}$, is constant for ETGs with stellar masses ${\mathcal{M}}_{\star }\lesssim 3\times 10^{10}{M}_{\odot }$, in agreement with previous studies. The lack of correlation between the fraction of GCs and the nuclear light implies only a weak link between the infall of GCs and the formation of nuclei.

arXiv comment16 pages, 7 figures, 6 tables; accepted by ApJ

References in corpus (51)

• Stellar population synthesis at the resolution of 2003
• The slope of the black-hole mass versus velocity dispersion correlation
• A Comprehensive Analysis of Uncertainties Affecting the Stellar Mass - Halo Mass Relation for 0<z<4
• Extragalactic Globular Clusters and Galaxy Formation
• Accurate masses for dispersion-supported galaxies
• The Luminosity Function of Young Star Clusters In "The Antennae" Galaxies (NGC 4038/4039)
• The ACS Virgo Cluster Survey. VI. Isophotal Analysis and the Structure of Early-Type Galaxies
• The ACS Virgo Cluster Survey. VIII. The Nuclei of Early-Type Galaxies
• The ACS Fornax Cluster Survey. V. Measurement and Recalibration of Surface Brightness Fluctuations and a Precise Value of the Fornax--Virgo Relative Distance
• The ACS Virgo Cluster Survey IX: The Color Distributions of Globular Cluster Systems in Early-Type Galaxies
• On the fraction of star formation occurring in bound stellar clusters
• Properties of Globular Cluster Systems in Nearby Early-type 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. XII. The Luminosity Function of Globular Clusters in Early Type Galaxies
• Formation of globular clusters in hierarchical cosmology
• The ACS Virgo Cluster Survey. I. Introduction to the Survey
• A Catalog of Globular Cluster Systems: What Determines the Size of a Galaxy's Globular Cluster Population?
• 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
• The Efficiency of Globular Cluster Formation
• The Globular Cluster System of NGC 1399. I. A Wide-field Photometric Study
• The Colors of Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy Globular Cluster Systems, Nuclei and Stellar Halos
• A New Method for Estimating Dark Matter Halo Masses using Globular Cluster Systems
• The ACS Fornax Cluster Survey. I. Introduction to the Survey and Data Reduction Procedures
• The ACS Fornax Cluster Survey. VIII. The Luminosity Function of Globular Clusters in Virgo and Fornax Early-Type Galaxies and its Use as a Distance Indicator
• Globular Cluster Systems in Nearby Dwarf Galaxies: III. Formation Efficiencies of Old Globular Clusters
• Dynamical Friction in dE Globular Cluster Systems
• The formation and hierarchical assembly of globular cluster populations
• The ACS Fornax Cluster Survey. VI. The Nuclei of Early-Type Galaxies in the Fornax Cluster
• Kinematics, ages, and metallicities of star clusters in NGC 1316: A 3 Gyr old merger remnant
• Globular Clusters in 19 Northern Abell Clusters
• Extending the Globular Cluster System-Halo Mass Relation to the Lowest Galaxy Masses
• Dark Matter Halos in Galaxies and Globular Cluster Populations
• The metallicity bimodality of globular cluster systems: a test of galaxy assembly and of the evolution of the galaxy mass-metallicity relation
• The Globular Cluster Luminosity Function and Specific Frequency in Dwarf Elliptical Galaxies
• The star cluster system of the 3 Gyr old merger remnant NGC 1316: Clues from optical and near-infrared photometry
• The ACS Virgo Cluster Survey II. Data Reduction Procedures
• On the Assembly of Dwarf Galaxies in Clusters and their Efficient Formation of Globular Clusters
• Deep Luminosity Functions of Old and Intermediate-Age Globular Clusters in NGC 1316: Evidence for Dynamical Evolution of Second-Generation Globular Clusters
• The ACS Fornax Cluster Survey VII. Half-Light Radii of Globular Clusters in Early-Type Galaxies
• Globular Clusters in Dense Clusters of Galaxies
• Formation of globular clusters in atomic-cooling halos via rapid gas condensation and fragmentation during the epoch of reionization
• The Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey. XII. Stellar Populations and Kinematics of Compact, Low-Mass Early-Type Galaxies from Gemini GMOS-IFU Spectroscopy
• Globular cluster systems in low-luminosity early-type galaxies near the Fornax Cluster centre
• Virgo Redux: The Masses and Stellar Content of Nuclei in Early-Type Galaxies from Multi-Band Photometry and Spectroscopy
• The Dependence of Globular Cluster Number on Density for Abell Cluster Central Galaxies
• Evidence for the rapid formation of low mass early-type galaxies in dense environments
• The globular cluster system of NGC1316. III. Kinematic complexity
• Globular Cluster Populations: First Results from S${}^4$G Early-Type Galaxies
• The ACS Fornax Cluster Survey. XII. Diffuse Star Clusters in Early-type Galaxies
• The Influence of Environment on the Chemical Evolution in Low-mass Galaxies

Cited by in corpus (28)

• ELVES II: GCs and Nuclear Star Clusters of Dwarf Galaxies; The Importance of Environment
• Implications for Galaxy Formation Models from Observations of Globular Clusters around Ultra-Diffuse Galaxies
• Diversity of nuclear star cluster formation mechanisms revealed by their star formation histories
• Galaxy populations in the Hydra I cluster from the VEGAS survey II. The ultra-diffuse galaxy population
• 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 nucleation fraction of Local Volume galaxies
• A MeerKAT view of pre-processing in the Fornax A group
• Constraining nuclear star cluster formation using MUSE-AO observations of the early-type galaxy FCC47
• Disentangling the formation mechanisms of nuclear star clusters
• Simulating the Spatial Distribution and Kinematics of Globular Clusters within Galaxy Clusters in Illustris
• A Photometric Survey of Globular Cluster Systems in Brightest Cluster Galaxies
• Euclid: Early Release Observations -- The intracluster light and intracluster globular clusters of the Perseus cluster
• Euclid: Early Release Observations -- Globular clusters in the Fornax galaxy cluster, from dwarf galaxies to the intracluster field
• Scaling relations for globular cluster systems in early-type galaxies. II. Is there an environmental dependence?
• Effect of the initial mass function on the dynamical SMBH mass estimate in the nucleated early-type galaxy FCC 47
• Globular Cluster Systems of Relic Galaxies
• The influence of globular cluster evolution on the specific frequency in dwarf galaxies
• An Unexplained Origin for the Unusual Globular Cluster System in the Ultra-diffuse Galaxy FCC 224
• Globular Cluster Systems of Massive Compact Elliptical Galaxies in the Local Universe: Evidence for Relic Red Nuggets?
• The physics governing the upper truncation mass of the globular cluster mass function
• Wide-field study of the peculiar globular cluster system hosted by the field lenticular NGC 1172
• Spatial Structures in the Globular Cluster Distribution of Fornax Cluster Galaxies
• Revisiting the globular clusters of NGC1052-DF2
• Are early-type galaxies quenched by present-day environment? A study of dwarfs in the Fornax Cluster
• Detecting Intermediate-Mass Black Holes out to 20 Mpc with ELT/HARMONI: The Case of FCC 119
• The mass profile of NGC 3377 from a Bayesian approach
• Using MUSE-AO observations to constrain the formation of the large nuclear star cluster in FCC47
• Evidence for Environmental Stripping in the Coma Cluster