THE ACS VIRGO CLUSTER SURVEY. XVII. THE SPATIAL ALIGNMENT OF GLOBULAR CLUSTER SYSTEMS WITH EARLY-TYPE HOST GALAXIES

Journal Article · Sat Jun 01 04:00:00 EDT 2013 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/769/2/145· OSTI ID:22127197

Qiushi, Wang; Peng, Eric W. ^[1]; Blakeslee, John P.; Cote, Patrick; Ferrarese, Laura ^[2]; Jordan, Andres ^[3]; Mei, Simona ^[4]

---

1. Department of Astronomy, Peking University, Beijing 100871 (China)
2. Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics, National Research Council of Canada, 5071 West Saanich Road, Victoria, BC V9E 2E7 (Canada)
3. Departamento de Astronomia y Astrofisica, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Casilla 306, Santiago 22 (Chile)
4. University of Paris 7 Denis Diderot, F-75205 Paris Cedex 13 (France)

We study the azimuthal distribution of globular clusters (GCs) in early-type galaxies and compare them to their host galaxies using data from the ACS Virgo Cluster Survey. We find that in host galaxies with visible elongation ({epsilon} > 0.2) and intermediate to high luminosities (M{sub z} < -19), the GCs are preferentially aligned along the major axis of the stellar light. The red (metal-rich) GC subpopulations show strong alignment with the major axis of the host galaxy, which supports the notion that these GCs are associated with metal-rich field stars. The metal-rich GCs in lenticular galaxies show signs of being more strongly associated with disks rather than bulges. Surprisingly, we also find that the blue (metal-poor) GCs can also show the same correlation. If the metal-poor GCs are part of the early formation of the halo and built up through mergers, then our results support a picture where halo formation and merging occur anisotropically, and that the present-day major axis is an indicator of the preferred merging axis.

• OSTI ID: 22127197
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 769; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
ALIGNMENT
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
CORRELATIONS
DISTRIBUTION
ELONGATION
EVOLUTION
GALAXIES
LUMINOSITY
METALS
STAR CLUSTERS
STARS