THE EFFECT OF SECOND-GENERATION POPULATIONS ON THE INTEGRATED COLORS OF METAL-RICH GLOBULAR CLUSTERS IN EARLY-TYPE GALAXIES
- Department of Astronomy and Center for Galaxy Evolution Research, Yonsei University, Seoul 120-749 (Korea, Republic of)
The mean color of globular clusters (GCs) in early-type galaxies is in general bluer than the integrated color of halo field stars in host galaxies. Metal-rich GCs often appear more associated with field stars than metal-poor GCs, yet show bluer colors than their host galaxy light. Motivated by the discovery of multiple stellar populations in Milky Way GCs, we present a new scenario in which the presence of second-generation (SG) stars in GCs is responsible for the color discrepancy between metal-rich GCs and field stars. The model assumes that the SG populations have an enhanced helium abundance as evidenced by observations, and it gives a good explanation of the bluer optical colors of metal-rich GCs than field stars as well as strong Balmer lines and blue UV colors of metal-rich GCs. Ours may be complementary to the recent scenario suggesting the difference in stellar mass functions (MFs) as an origin for the GC-to-star color offset. A quantitative comparison is given between the SG and MF models.
- OSTI ID:
- 22130658
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal Letters, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Letters Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 769; ISSN 2041-8205
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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