Is Fornax 4 the nuclear star cluster of the Fornax dwarf spheroidal galaxy?

Abstract

Fornax 4 is the most distinctive globular cluster in the Fornax dwarf spheroidal. Located close to the centre of the galaxy, more metal-rich and potentially younger than its four companions (namely, Fornax clusters number 1, 2, 3 and 5), it has been suggested to have experienced a different formation than the other clusters in the galaxy. Here we use HST/WFC3 photometry to characterize the stellar population content of this system and shed new light on its nature. By means of a detailed comparison of synthetic horizontal branch and red giant branch with the observed colour-magnitude diagrams, we find that this system likely hosts stellar sub-populations characterized by a significant iron spread up to $\Delta$[Fe/H]$\sim$0.4 dex and possibly by also some degree of He abundance variations $\Delta$Y$\sim 0.03$. We argue that this purely observational evidence, combined with the other peculiarities characterizing this system, supports the possibility that Fornax 4 is the nuclear star cluster of the Fornax dwarf spheroidal galaxy. A spectroscopic follow-up for a large number of resolved member stars is needed to confirm this interesting result and to study in detail the formation and early evolution of this system and more in general the process of galaxy nucleation.

Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 12 pages, 11 figures

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• The nucleation fraction of Local Volume galaxies
• The chemical composition of globular clusters in the Local Group
• Assessing the Fornax globular cluster timing problem in different models of dark matter
• On the Nitrogen variation in ~2 Gyr old massive star clusters in the Large Magellanic Cloud