Globular Clusters: DNA of Early-Type galaxies?

This paper explores if the mean properties of Early-Type Galaxies (ETG) can be reconstructed from "genetic" information stored in their GCs (i.e., in their chemical abundances, spatial distributions and ages). This approach implies that the formation of each globular occurs in very massive stellar environments, as suggested by some models that aim at explaining the presence of multi-populations in these systems. The assumption that the relative number of globular clusters to diffuse stellar mass depends exponentially on chemical abundance, [Z/H], and the presence of two dominant GC sub-populations blue and red, allows the mapping of low metallicity halos and of higher metallicity (and more heterogeneous) bulges. In particular, the masses of the low-metallicity halos seem to scale up with dark matter mass through a constant. We also find a dependence of the globular cluster formation efficiency with the mean projected stellar mass density of the galaxies within their effective radii. The analysis is based on a selected sub-sample of galaxies observed within the ACS Virgo Cluster Survey of the {\it Hubble Space Telescope}. These systems were grouped, according to their absolute magnitudes, in order to define composite fiducial galaxies and look for a quantitative connection with their (also composite) globular clusters systems. The results strengthen the idea that globular clusters are good quantitative tracers of both baryonic and dark matter in ETGs.Comment: 20 pages, 28 figures and 5 table

Attributing scientific and technical progress: the case of holography

Holography, the three-dimensional imaging technology, was portrayed widely as a paradigm of progress during its decade of explosive expansion 1964–73, and during its subsequent consolidation for commercial and artistic uses up to the mid 1980s. An unusually seductive and prolific subject, holography successively spawned scientific insights, putative applications and new constituencies of practitioners and consumers. Waves of forecasts, associated with different sponsors and user communities, cast holography as a field on the verge of success—but with the dimensions of success repeatedly refashioned. This retargeting of the subject represented a degree of cynical marketeering, but was underpinned by implicit confidence in philosophical positivism and faith in technological progressivism. Each of its communities defined success in terms of expansion, and anticipated continual progressive increase. This paper discusses the contrasting definitions of progress in holography, and how they were fashioned in changing contexts. Focusing equally on reputed ‘failures’ of some aspects of the subject, it explores the varied attributes by which success and failure were linked with progress by different technical communities. This important case illuminates the peculiar post-World War II environment that melded the military, commercial and popular engagement with scientific and technological subjects, and the competing criteria by which they assessed the products of science