The Star Cluster Systems of the Magellanic Clouds

The characteristics of the cluster systems of the Magellanic Clouds, as inferred from integrated properties, are compared with those from individual cluster studies and from the field population. The agreement is generally satisfactory though in the case of the LMC, the lack of clusters older than ~3 Gyr is not reflected in the field population. The possible origin(s) for this cluster ``age-gap'' are discussed. The SMC cluster age-metallicity relation is also presented and discussed.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures. To appear in the Proceedings of IAU Symposium 207, "Extragalactic Star Clusters", eds E. Grebel, D. Geisler and D. Minnit

A Second Shell in the Fornax dSph Galaxy

In the search for tidal structure in Galactic satellite systems, we have conducted a photometric survey over a 10 square degree area centred on the Fornax dSph galaxy. The survey was made in two colours, and the resulting colour-magnitude data were used as a mask to select candidate Fornax RGB stars, thereby increasing the contrast of Fornax stars to background sources in the outer regions. Previously, we reported the presence of a shell (age 2 Gyr) located towards the centre of Fornax. In this contribution we reveal a second shell, significantly larger than the first, located 1.3 degrees NW from the centre of Fornax, outside the nominal tidal radius. Moreover, the distribution of Fornax RGB stars reveals two lobes extending to the spatial limit of our survey, and aligned with the minor axis and with the two shells. These results support the hypothesis of a merger between Fornax and a gas-rich companion approximately 2 Gyr ago.Comment: Four pages,accepted for the Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia. Contribution the annual ASA meeting, Brisbane 200

Stability of a two-sublattice spin-glass model

We study the stability of the replica-symmetric solution of a two-sublattice infinite-range spin-glass model, which can describe the transition from antiferromagnetic to spin glass state. The eigenvalues associated with replica-symmetric perturbations are in general complex. The natural generalization of the usual stability condition is to require the real part of these eigenvalues to be positive. The necessary and sufficient conditions for all the roots of the secular equation to have positive real parts is given by the Hurwitz criterion. The generalized stability condition allows a consistent analysis of the phase diagram within the replica-symmetric approximation.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figure

Clarification of the Nature of the Galaxy CFC97 Cen 05

The galaxy CFC97 Cen 05 has in the past been considered an HI-rich dwarf galaxy in the nearby Centaurus A group. We have used Australia Telescope Compact Array observations to show that the HI associated with CFC97 Cen 05 by Cote et al. (1997) is most likely a Galactic High Velocity Cloud that is centered ~17' from the optical image of the galaxy. At the optical location of the galaxy, which is not that tabulated by Banks et al. (1999), there is no indication of the presence of HI for velocities less than the upper limit of the HIPASS survey at ~12,500 km/s. In addition, WFPC2 images of CFC97 Cen 05 obtained from the HST Archive reveal that this galaxy is in fact not a dwarf at all, but rather is a distant background spiral not associated with the Centaurus A group.Comment: accepted for publication in the PASP (November 2004