5 research outputs found
The progenitors of the intra-cluster light and intra-cluster globular clusters in galaxy groups and clusters
We use the IllustrisTNG50 cosmological hydrodynamical simulation,
complemented by a catalog of tagged globular clusters, to investigate the
properties and build up of two extended luminous components: the intra-cluster
light (ICL) and the intra-cluster globular clusters (ICGC). We select the 39
most massive groups and clusters in the box, spanning the range of virial
masses . We
find good agreement between predictions from the simulations and current
observational estimates of the fraction of mass in the ICL and its radial
extension. The stellar mass of the ICL is only of the stellar
mass in the central galaxy but encodes useful information on the assembly
history of the group or cluster. About half the ICL in all our systems is
brought in by galaxies in a narrow stellar mass range,
. However, the contribution of low-mass galaxies (
) to the build-up of the ICL varies broadly from system to
system, , a feature that might be recovered from the observable
properties of the ICL at . At fixed virial mass, systems where the
accretion of dwarf galaxies plays an important role have shallower metallicity
profiles, less metal content and a lower stellar mass in the ICL than systems
where the main contributors are more massive galaxies. We show that
intra-cluster GCs are also good tracers of this history, representing a
valuable alternative when diffuse light is not detectable
Simulating the spatial distribution and kinematics of globular clusters within galaxy clusters in illustris
We study the assembly of globular clusters (GCs) in 9 galaxy clusters using the cosmological simulation Illustris. GCs are tagged to individual galaxies at their infall time. The tidal removal of GCs from their galaxies and the distribution of the GCs within the cluster is later followed self-consistently by the simulation. The method relies on the simple assumption of a single power-law relation between halo mass (Mvir) and mass in GCs (MGC) as found in observations. We find that the GCs specific frequency SN as a function of V-band magnitude naturally reproduces the observed ‘U’-shape due to the combination of the power law MGC–Mvir relation and the non-linear stellar mass (M∗)–halo mass relation from the simulation. Additional scatter in the SN values is traced back to galaxies with early infall times due to the evolution of the M∗–Mvir relation with redshift. GCs that have been tidally removed from their galaxies form the present-day intracluster component, from which about ∼60 per cent were brought in by galaxies that currently orbit within the cluster potential. The remaining ‘orphan’ GCs are contributed by satellite galaxies with a wide range of stellar masses that are fully tidally disrupted at z = 0. This intracluster component is a good dynamical tracer of the dark matter potential. As a consequence of the accreted nature of most intracluster GCs, their orbits are fairly radial with a predicted orbital anisotropy β ≥ 0.5. However, local tangential motions may appear as a consequence of localized substructure, providing a possible interpretation to the β < 0 values suggested in observations of M87.Fil: Ramos Almendares, Felipe Alberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientÃficas y Técnicas. Centro CientÃfico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de AstronomÃa Teórica y Experimental. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Observatorio Astronómico de Córdoba. Instituto de AstronomÃa Teórica y Experimental; ArgentinaFil: Sales, Laura Virginia. University of California; Estados Unidos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientÃficas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Abadi, Mario Gabriel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientÃficas y Técnicas. Centro CientÃfico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de AstronomÃa Teórica y Experimental. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Observatorio Astronómico de Córdoba. Instituto de AstronomÃa Teórica y Experimental; ArgentinaFil: Muriel, Hernan. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientÃficas y Técnicas. Centro CientÃfico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de AstronomÃa Teórica y Experimental. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Observatorio Astronómico de Córdoba. Instituto de AstronomÃa Teórica y Experimental; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Observatorio Astronómico de Córdoba; ArgentinaFil: Doppel, Jessica E.. University of California; Estados UnidosFil: Peng, Eric W.. Peking University; Chin
Imposters among us: globular cluster kinematics and the halo mass of ultra-diffuse galaxies in clusters
The velocity dispersion of globular clusters (GCs) around ultra-diffuse galaxies (UDGs) in the Virgo cluster spans a wide range, including cases where GC kinematics suggest haloes as massive as (or even more massive than) that of the Milky Way around these faint dwarfs. We analyse the catalogues of GCs derived in post-processing from the TNG50 cosmological simulation to study the GC system kinematics and abundance of simulated UDGs in galaxy groups and clusters. UDGs in this simulation reside exclusively in dwarf-mass haloes with M200 ≲ 1011.2 M⊙. When considering only GCs gravitationally bound to simulated UDGs, we find GCs properties that overlap well with several observational measurements for UDGs. In particular, no bias towards overly massive haloes is inferred from the study of bound GCs, confirming that GCs are good tracers of UDG halo mass. However, we find that contamination by intracluster GCs may, in some cases, substantially increase velocity dispersion estimates when performing projected mock observations of our sample. We caution that targets with less than 10 GC tracers are particularly prone to severe uncertainties. Measuring the stellar kinematics of the host galaxy should help confirm the unusually massive haloes suggested by GC kinematics around some UDGs
Globular clusters as tracers of the dark matter content of dwarfs in galaxy clusters
Globular clusters (GCs) are often used to estimate the dark matter content of
galaxies, especially dwarfs, where other kinematic tracers are lacking. These
estimates typically assume spherical symmetry and dynamical equilibrium,
assumptions that may not hold for the sparse GC population of dwarfs in galaxy
clusters. We use a catalog of GCs tagged onto the Illustris simulation to study
the accuracy of GC-based mass estimates. We focus on galaxies in the stellar
mass range 10 M identified in simulated
Virgo-like clusters. Our results indicate that mass estimates are, on average,
quite accurate in systems with GC numbers and where the
uncertainty of individual GC line-of-sight velocities is smaller than the
inferred velocity dispersion, . In cases where , however, biases may result depending on how is
computed. We provide calibrations that may help alleviate these biases in
methods widely used in the literature. As an application, we find a number of
dwarfs with (comparable to the ultradiffuse
galaxy DF2, notable for the low of its GCs) with
- . These DF2 analogs
correspond to relatively massive systems at their infall time (
- ) which have retained only - GCs and
have been stripped of more than 95 of their dark matter. Our results
suggest that extreme tidal mass loss in otherwise normal dwarf galaxies may be
a possible formation channel for ultradiffuse objects like DF2.Comment: 19 pages, 15 figures. Accepted to MNRAS Dec. 11 202
Modeling globular clusters in the TNG50 simulation: predictions from dwarfs to giant galaxies
We present a post-processing catalogue of globular clusters (GCs) for the 39 most massive groups and clusters in the TNG50 simulation of the IlllustrisTNG project (virial masses M200=[5×10^12−2×10^14] M⊙). We tag GC particles to all galaxies with stellar mass M* ≥ 5 × 10^6 M⊙, and we calibrate their masses to reproduce the observed power-law relation between GC mass and halo mass for galaxies with M200 ≥ 10^11 M⊙ (corresponding to M* ∼ 10^9 M⊙). Here, we explore whether an extrapolation of this MGC–M200 relation to lower mass dwarfs is consistent with current observations. We find a good agreement between our predicted number and specific frequency of GCs in dwarfs with M∗=[5×10^6−10^9] M⊙ and observations. Moreover, we predict a steep decline in the GC occupation fraction for dwarfs with M* < 10^9 M⊙ that agrees well with current observational constraints. This declining occupation fraction is due to a combination of tidal stripping in all dwarfs plus a stochastic sampling of the GC mass function for dwarfs with M* < 10^7.5 M⊙. Our simulations also reproduce available constraints on the abundance of intracluster GCs in Virgo and Centaurus A. These successes provide support to the hypothesis that the MGC–M200 relation holds, albeit with more scatter, all the way down to the regime of classical dwarf spheroidals in these environments. Our GC catalogues are publicly available as part of the IllustrisTNG data release