Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 4 of 4
Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network
Trends In The Globular Cluster Luminosity Function Of Early-Type Galaxies, Andrés Jordán, Dean E. Mclaughlin, Patrick Côté, David Merritt, Et Al.
Trends In The Globular Cluster Luminosity Function Of Early-Type Galaxies, Andrés Jordán, Dean E. Mclaughlin, Patrick Côté, David Merritt, Et Al.
Articles
We present results from a study of the globular cluster luminosity function (GCLF) in a sample of 89 earlytype galaxies observed as part of the ACS Virgo Cluster Survey. Using a Gaussian parametrization of the GCLF, we find a highly significant correlation between the GCLF dispersion, , and the galaxy luminosity, MB,gal, in the sense that the GC systems in fainter galaxies have narrower luminosity functions. The GCLF dispersions in the Milky Way and M31 are fully consistent with this trend, implying that the correlation between sigma and galaxy luminosity is more fundamental than older suggestions that GCLF shape is …
A Fundamental Relation Between Compact Stellar Nuclei, Supermassive Black Holes, And Their Host Galaxies, Laura Ferrarese, Patrick Côté, Elena Dalla Bontà, David Merritt, Et Al.
A Fundamental Relation Between Compact Stellar Nuclei, Supermassive Black Holes, And Their Host Galaxies, Laura Ferrarese, Patrick Côté, Elena Dalla Bontà, David Merritt, Et Al.
Articles
Imaging surveys with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) have shown that 50–80% of low- and intermediate-luminosity galaxies contain a compact stellar nucleus at their center, regardless of host galaxy morphological type. We combine HST imaging for early-type galaxies from the ACS Virgo Cluster Survey with ground-based long-slit spectra from KPNO to show that the masses of compact stellar nuclei in Virgo Cluster galaxies obey a tight correlation with the masses of the host galaxies. The same correlation is obeyed by the supermassive black holes (SBHs) found in predominantly massive galaxies. The compact stellar nuclei in the Local Group galaxies M33 …
The Acs Virgo Cluster Survey Ix: The Color Distributions Of Globular Cluster Systems In Early-Type Galaxies, Eric Peng, Andres Jordan, Patrick Cote
The Acs Virgo Cluster Survey Ix: The Color Distributions Of Globular Cluster Systems In Early-Type Galaxies, Eric Peng, Andres Jordan, Patrick Cote
Articles
We present the color distributions of globular cluster (GC) systems for 100 Virgo cluster earlytype galaxies observed in the ACS Virgo Cluster Survey, the deepest and most homogeneous survey of this kind to date. While the color distributions of individual GC systems can show significant variations from one another, their general properties are consistent with continuous trends across galaxy luminosity, color, and stellar mass. On average, galaxies at all luminosities in our study (−22 < MB < −15) appear to have bimodal or asymmetric GC color distributions. Almost all galaxies possess a component of metal-poor GCs, with the average fraction of metal-rich GCs ranging from 15 to 60%. The colors of both subpopulations correlate with host galaxy luminosity and color, with the red GCs having a steeper slope. The steeper correlation seen in the mean color of the entire GC system is driven by the increasing fraction of metal-rich GCs for more luminous galaxies. To convert color to metallicity, we also introduce a preliminary (g–z)-[Fe/H] relation calibrated to Galactic, M49 and M87 GCs. This relation is nonlinear with a steeper slope for [Fe/H] . −0.8. As a result, the metallicities of the metal-poor and metal-rich GCs vary similarly with respect to galaxy luminosity and stellar mass, with relations of [Fe/H]MP ∝ L0.16±0.04 ∝ M0.17±0.04 ⋆ and [Fe/H]MR ∝ L0.26±0.03 ∝ M0.22±0.03 ⋆ , respectively. Although these relations are shallower than the mass-metallicity relation predicted by wind models and observed for dwarf galaxies, they are very similar to the mass-metallicity relation for star forming galaxies in the same mass range. The offset between the two GC populations varies slowly (∝ M0.05 ⋆ ) and is approximately 1 dex across three orders of magnitude in mass, suggesting a nearly universal amount of enrichment between the formation of the two populations of GCs. We also find that although the metal-rich GCs show a larger dispersion in color, it is the metal-poor GCs that have an equal or larger dispersion in metallicity. The similarity in the M⋆–[Fe/H] relations for the two populations, implies that the conditions of GC formation for metal-poor and metal-rich GCs could not have been too different. Like the color-magnitude relation, these relations derived from globular clusters present stringent constraints on the formation and evolution of early-type galaxies.
The Acs Virgo Cluster Survey. Viii. The Nuclei Of Early-Type Galaxies, Patrick Côté, Slawomir Piatek, Laura Ferrarese, Andrés Jordán, David Merritt, Eric W. Peng, Monica Haşegan, John P. Blakeslee, Simona Mei, Michael J. West, Miloš Milosavljević, John L. Tonry
The Acs Virgo Cluster Survey. Viii. The Nuclei Of Early-Type Galaxies, Patrick Côté, Slawomir Piatek, Laura Ferrarese, Andrés Jordán, David Merritt, Eric W. Peng, Monica Haşegan, John P. Blakeslee, Simona Mei, Michael J. West, Miloš Milosavljević, John L. Tonry
Articles
The ACS Virgo Cluster Survey is a Hubble Space Telescope program to obtain high-resolution imaging, in widely separated bandpasses (F475W ≈ g and F850LP ≈ z), for 100 early-type members of the Virgo Cluster, spanning a range of ≈ 460 in blue luminosity. We use this large, homogenous dataset to examine the innermost structure of these galaxies and to characterize the properties of their compact central nuclei. We present a sharp upward revision in the frequency of nucleation in early-type galaxies brighter than MB ≈ −15 (66 . fn . 82%) and show that ground-based surveys underestimated the number of …