207 research outputs found
A search for ultra-compact dwarf galaxies in the Centaurus galaxy cluster
Aim: To extend the investigations of ultra-compact dwarf galaxies (UCDs)
beyond the well studied Fornax and Virgo clusters. Methods: We measured
spectroscopic redshifts of about 400 compact object candidates with 19.2 < V <
22.4 mag in the central region of the Centaurus galaxy cluster (d=43Mpc), using
VIMOS@VLT. The luminosity range of the candidates covers that of bright
globular clusters (GCs) and of UCDs in Fornax and Virgo. Results: We confirm
the cluster membership of 27 compact objects, covering an absolute magnitude
range -12.2 < M_V < -10.9 mag. We do not find counterparts to the two very
large and bright UCDs in Fornax and Virgo with M_V=-13.5 mag, possibly due to
survey incompleteness. The compact objects' distribution in magnitude and space
is consistent with that of the GC population. Their kinematics and spatial
distribution associate them to the central galaxies rather than to the overall
cluster potential. The compact objects have a mean metallicity consistent with
that of the metal-rich globular cluster sub-population. Compact objects with
high S/N spectra exhibit solar [alpha/Fe] abundances, consistent with typical
dwarf elliptical galaxy values and unlike galactic bulge globular clusters. HST
based size estimates for a sub-sample of eight compact objects reveal the
existence of one very large object with half-light radius r_h around 30 pc,
having M_V=-11.6 mag (~10^7 M_sun). This source shows super-solar [alpha/Fe]
abundances. Seven further sources are only marginally larger than typical GCs
with r_h in the range 4 to 10 pc. Conclusions: We consider the largest compact
object found to be the only bona-fide UCD detected in our study. In order to
improve our understanding of UCDs in Centaurus, a significant increase of our
survey completeness is necessary.Comment: 11 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in A&
A search for massive UCDs in the Centaurus Galaxy Cluster
We recently initiated a search for ultra-compact dwarf galaxies (UCDs) in the
Centaurus galaxy cluster (Mieske et al. 2007), resulting in the discovery of 27
compact objects with -12.2<M_V<-10.9 mag. Our overall survey completeness was
15-20% within 120 kpc projected clustercentric distance. In order to better
constrain the luminosity distribution of the brightest UCDs in Centaurus, we
continue our search by substantially improving our survey completeness
specifically in the regime M_V<-12 mag (V_0<21.3 mag). Using VIMOS at the VLT,
we obtain low-resolution spectra of 400 compact objects with 19.3<V_0<21.3 mag
(-14<M_V<-12 mag at the Centaurus distance) in the central 25' of the Centaurus
cluster, which corresponds to a projected radius of ~150 kpc. Our survey yields
complete area coverage within ~120 kpc. For 94% of the sources included in the
masks we successfully measure a redshift. Due to incompleteness in the slit
assignment, our final completeness in the area surveyed is 52%. Among our
targets we find three new UCDs in the magnitude range -12.2<M_V<-12 mag, hence
at the faint limit of our survey. One of them is covered by archival HST WFPC2
imaging, yielding a size estimate of r_h <= 8-9 pc. At 95% confidence we can
reject the hypothesis that in the area surveyed there are more than 2 massive
UCDs with M_V<-12.2 mag and r_eff <=70 pc. Our survey hence confirms the
extreme rareness of massive UCDs. We find that the radial distributions of
Centaurus and Fornax UCDs with respect to their host clusters' centers agree
within the 2 sigma level.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, accepted as Research Note for A&
Compact stellar systems in the Fornax cluster: a UV perspective
In recent years, increasing evidence for chemical complexity and multiple
stellar populations in massive globular clusters (GCs) has emerged, including
extreme horizontal branches (EHBs) and UV excess. Our goal is to improve our
understanding of UV excess in the regime of both massive GCs and ultra-compact
dwarf galaxies (UCDs). To this end, we use deep archival GALEX data of the
central Fornax cluster to measure NUV and FUV magnitudes of UCDs and massive
GCs. We obtain NUV photometry for a sample of 35 compact objects with
-13.5<M_V<-10 mag. Of those, 21 objects also have FUV photometry. Roughly half
of the sources fall into the UCD luminosity regime (M_V <=-11 mag). We find
that seven out of 17 massive Fornax GCs exhibit a NUV excess with respect to
expectations from stellar population models, even for models with enhanced
Helium abundance. This suggests that not only He-enrichment has contributed to
forming the EHB population of these GCs. The GCs extend to stronger UV excess
than GCs in M31 and massive GCs in M87, at the 97% confidence level. Most of
the UCDs with FUV photometry also show evidence for UV excess, but their UV
colours can be matched by isochrones with enhanced Helium abundances and old
ages 12-14 Gyrs. We find that Fornax compact objects with X-ray emission
detected from Chandra images are almost disjunct in colour from compact objects
with GALEX UV detection, with only one X-ray source among the 35 compact
objects. However, since this source is one of the three most UV bright GCs, we
cannot exclude that the physical processes causing X-ray emission also
contribute to some of the observed UV excess.Comment: Research Note, 7 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in A&
High mass-to-light ratios of UCDs - Evidence for dark matter ?
Ultra-compact dwarf galaxies (UCDs) are stellar systems with masses of around
10^7 to 10^8 Msun and half mass radii of 10-100 pc. They have some properties
in common with massive globular clusters, however dynamical mass estimates have
shown that UCDs have mass-to-light ratios which are on average about twice as
large than those of globular clusters at comparable metallicity, and tend to be
larger than what one would expect for old stellar systems with standard mass
functions.
One possible explanation for elevated high mass-to-light ratios in UCDs is
the existence of a substantial amount of dark matter, which could have ended up
in UCDs if they are the remnant nuclei of tidally stripped dwarf galaxies.
Tidal stripping of dwarf galaxies has also been suggested has the origin of
several massive globular clusters like Omega Cen, in which case globular
clusters could have also formed with substantial amounts of dark matter.
In this paper, we present collisional N-body simulations which study the
co-evolution of a system composed out of stars and dark matter. We find that
the dark matter gets removed from the central regions of such systems due to
dynamical friction and mass segregation of stars. The friction timescale is
significantly shorter than a Hubble time for typical globular clusters, while
most UCDs have friction times much longer than a Hubble time. Therefore, a
significant dark matter fraction remains within the half-mass radius of
present-day UCDs, making dark matter a viable explanation for the elevated M/L
ratios of UCDs. If at least some globular clusters formed in a way similar to
UCDs, we predict a substantial amount of dark matter in their outer parts.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
A large population of ultra-compact dwarf galaxies in the Hydra I cluster
We performed a large spectroscopic survey of compact, unresolved objects in
the core of the Hydra I galaxy cluster (Abell 1060), with the aim of
identifying ultra-compact dwarf galaxies (UCDs), and investigating the
properties of the globular cluster (GC) system around the central cD galaxy NGC
3311. We obtained VIMOS medium resolution spectra of about 1200 candidate
objects with apparent magnitudes 18.5 < V < 24.0 mag, covering both the bright
end of the GC luminosity function and the luminosity range of all known UCDs.
By means of spectroscopic redshift measurements, we identified 118 cluster
members, from which 52 are brighter than M_V = -11.0 mag, and can therefore be
termed UCDs. The brightest UCD in our sample has an absolute magnitude of M_V =
-13.4 mag (corresponding to a mass of > 5 x 10^7 M_sun) and a half-light radius
of 25 pc. This places it among the brightest and most massive UCDs ever
discovered. Most of the GCs/UCDs are both spatially and dynamically associated
to the central cD galaxy. The overall velocity dispersion of the GCs/UCDs is
comparable to what is found for the cluster galaxies. However, when splitting
the sample into a bright and a faint part, we observe a lower velocity
dispersion for the bright UCDs/GCs than for the fainter objects. At a dividing
magnitude of M_V = -10.75 mag, the dispersions differ by more than 200 km/s,
and up to 300 km/s for objects within 5 arcmin around NGC 3311. We interpret
these results in the context of different UCD formation channels, and conclude
that interaction driven formation seems to play an important role in the centre
of Hydra I.Comment: 18 pages, 17 figures, accepted for publication in A&
The colour-magnitude relation of Globular Clusters in Centaurus and Hydra - Constraints on star cluster self-enrichment with a link to massive Milky Way GCs
We investigate the colour-magnitude relation of metal-poor globular clusters,
the 'blue tilt', in the Hydra and Centaurus galaxy clusters and constrain the
primordial conditions for star cluster self-enrichment. We analyse U,I
photometry for about 2500 globular clusters in the central regions of Hydra and
Centaurus, based on FORS1@VLT data. We convert the measured colour-magnitude
relations into mass-metallicity space and obtain a scaling of Z \propto M^{0.27
\pm 0.05} for Centaurus GCs and Z \propto M^{0.40 \pm 0.06} for Hydra GCs,
consistent with results in other environments. We find that the GC
mass-metallicity relation already sets in at present-day masses of a few 10^5
solar masses and is well established in the luminosity range of massive MW
clusters like omega Centauri. We compare the mass-metallicity relation with
predictions from the star cluster self-enrichment model by Bailin & Harris
(2009). For this we include effects of dynamical and stellar evolution and a
physically well motivated primordial mass-radius scaling. The self-enrichment
model reproduces the observed relations well for average primordial half-light
radii r_h ~ 1-1.5 pc, star formation efficiencies f_* ~ 0.3-0.4, and
pre-enrichment levels of [Fe/H] ~ -1.7 dex. Within the self-enrichment
scenario, the observed blue tilt implies a correlation between GC mass and
width of the stellar metallicity distribution. We find that this implied
correlation matches the trend of width with GC mass measured in Galactic GCs,
including extreme cases like omega Cen and M54. We conclude that 1. A
primordial star cluster mass-radius relation provides a significant improvement
to the self-enrichment model fits. 2. Broadenend metallicity distributions as
found in some massive MW globular clusters may have arisen naturally from
self-enrichment processes, without the need of a dwarf galaxy progenitor.Comment: 15 pages, 13 figures. Language edited version of paper accepted for
publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics. Colour-composite in Figure 1 reduced
in resolutio
Faint dwarf galaxies in nearby clusters
Besides giant elliptical galaxies, a number of low-mass stellar systems
inhabit the cores of galaxy clusters, such as dwarf elliptical galaxies
(dEs/dSphs), ultra-compact dwarf galaxies (UCDs), and globular clusters. The
detailed morphological examination of faint dwarf galaxies has, until recently,
been limited to the Local Group (LG) and the two very nearby galaxy clusters
Virgo and Fornax. Here, we compare the structural parameters of a large number
of dEs/dSphs in the more distant clusters Hydra I and Centaurus to other
dynamically hot stellar systems.Comment: 2 pages, 1 figure; to appear in "A Universe of Dwarf Galaxies:
Observations, Theories, Simulations", held in Lyon, France (June 14-18,
2010), eds. M. Koleva, P. Prugniel & I. Vauglin, EAS Series (Paris: EDP
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