Tidal Disruption of Super Star Clusters as the origin of Bluish Light at the inner region of the Perseus Cluster Central Galaxy

Abstract

Relatively blue light extends beyond a spiral disk from a radius of ~5 kpc out to ~14 kpc from the center of NGC 1275. Analyses of its spectrum and broadband colors reveal a population of young stars having sub-solar metallicities superposed on a dominant population of old stars having super-solar metallicities. The young stars have a characteristic age of ~160 Myr and may span ages of a few hundred Myr, similar to that of stars comprising the central spiral disk, and a total mass about one-third that of this disk for a combined stellar mass (at birth) of ~4 $\times$ 10${}^9$ ${\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }$. A multitude of arc-like features embedded in the extended blue light have brightnesses comparable to the somewhat older (~500 Myr) super star clusters (SSCs) projected against the central spiral disk. The SSCs have a relatively shallow mass function, suggesting that the tidal disruption of an initially larger population that we estimate could have had an initial total mass (far) exceeding ~1 $\times$ 10${}^9$ ${\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }$ gave rise to the extended blue light -- the arc-like features corresponding to stellar streams tracing disrupted star clusters -- and perhaps also the central spiral disk. We speculate that, beginning about 500 Myr ago, an enhanced episode of AGN activity in NGC 1275, leaving still visible X-ray bubbles, induced vigorous cooling of the intracluster medium to fuel the formation of numerous star clusters: many were tidally disrupted to leave bluish light at the inner region of this galaxy, with the survivors being the SSCs projected against the central spiral disk.

25 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

References in corpus (22)

• The Astropy Project: Sustaining and Growing a Community-oriented Open-source Project and the Latest Major Release (v5.0) of the Core Package
• Imfit: A Fast, Flexible New Program for Astronomical Image Fitting
• The Regulation of Cooling and Star Formation in Luminous Galaxies by AGN Feedback and the Cooling-Time/Entropy Threshold for the Onset of Star Formation
• A deeper X-ray study of the core of the Perseus galaxy cluster: the power of sound waves and the distribution of metals and cosmic rays
• An Entropy Threshold for Strong H-alpha and Radio Emission in the Cores of Galaxy Clusters
• Regulation of star formation in giant galaxies by precipitation, feedback, and conduction
• Cold molecular gas in the Perseus cluster core - Association with X-ray cavity, Halpha filaments and cooling flow -
• Magnetic support of the optical emission line filaments in NGC 1275
• The Streams of the Gaping Abyss: A population of entangled stellar streams surrounding the Inner Galaxy
• Collisional heating as the origin of filament emission in galaxy clusters
• Radially-Inflowing Molecular Gas in NGC 1275 Deposited by a X-ray Cooling Flow in the Perseus Cluster
• Fourteen candidate RR Lyrae star streams in the inner Galaxy
• Filamentary Star Formation in NGC 1275
• The star formation history of luminous infrared galaxies
• Erosion of Globular Cluster Systems: The Influence of Radial Anisotropy, Central Black Holes and Dynamical Friction
• Toward a Better Understanding of Cosmic Chronometers: Stellar Population Properties of Passive Galaxies at Intermediate Redshift
• Observations of CO in the eastern filaments of NGC 1275
• Ionized and hot molecular outflows in the inner 500 pc of NGC1275
• A stream come true: Connecting tidal tails, shells, streams, and planes with galaxy kinematics and formation history
• Recent Formation of a Spiral Disk Hosting Progenitor Globular Clusters at the center of the Perseus Brightest Cluster Galaxy: II. Progenitor Globular Clusters
• Recent Formation of a Spiral Disk Hosting Progenitor Globular Clusters at the center of the Perseus Brightest Cluster Galaxy: I. Spiral Disk
• Star Formation, Nebulae, and Active Galactic Nuclei in CLASH Brightest Cluster Galaxies. I. Dependence on Core Entropy of Intracluster Medium