The globular cluster system of NGC 1316 IV. Nature of the star cluster complex SH2

The light of the merger remnant NGC 1316 is dominated by old and intermediate-age stars. The only sign of current star formation in this big galaxy is the HII region SH2, an isolated star cluster complex with a ring-like morphology and an estimated age of 0.1 Gyr at a galactocentric distance of about 35 kpc. A nearby intermediate-age globular cluster, surrounded by weak line emission and a few more young star clusters, is kinematically associated. The origin of this complex is enigmatic. The nebular emission lines permit a metallicity determination which can discriminate between a dwarf galaxy or other possible precursors. We used the Integrated Field Unit of the VIMOS instrument at the Very Large Telescope of the European Southern Observatory to study the morphology, kinematics, and metallicity employing line maps, velocity maps, and line diagnostics of a few characteristic spectra. The line ratios of different spectra vary, indicating highly structured HII regions, but define a locus of uniform metallicity. The strong-line diagnostic diagrams and empirical calibrations point to a nearly solar or even super-solar oxygen abundance. The velocity dispersion of the gas is highest in the region offset from the bright clusters. Star formation may be active on a low level. There is evidence for a large-scale disk-like structure in the region of SH2, which would make the similar radial velocity of the nearby globular cluster easier to understand. The high metallicity does not fit to a dwarf galaxy as progenitor. We favour the scenario of a free-floating gaseous complex having its origin in the merger 2 Gyr ago. Over a long period the densities increased secularly until finally the threshold for star formation was reached. SH2 illustrates how massive star clusters can form outside starbursts and without a considerable field population.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, accepted for Astronomy & Astrophysic

The curious case of the companion: evidence for cold accretion onto a dwarf satellite near the isolated elliptical NGC 7796

The isolated elliptical (IE) NGC 7796 is accompanied by an interesting early-type dwarf galaxy, named NGC7796-DW1. It exhibits a tidal tail, very boxy isophotes, and multiple nuclei or regions (A, B, and C) that are bluer than the bulk population of the galaxy, indicating a younger age. These properties are suggestive of a dwarf-dwarf merger remnant. We use the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) at the VLT to investigate NGC 7796-DW1. We extract characteristic spectra to which we apply the STARLIGHT population synthesis software to obtain ages and metallicities of the various population components of the galaxy. The galaxy's main body is old and metal-poor. A surprising result is the extended line emission in the galaxy, forming a ring-like structure with a projected diameter of 2.2 kpc. The line ratios fall into the regime of HII-regions, although OB-stellar populations cannot be identified by spectral signatures. Nucleus A is a relatively old (7 Gyr or older) and metal-poor super star cluster, most probably the nucleus of the dwarf, now displaced. The star-forming regions B and C show younger and distinctly more metal-rich components. The emission line ratios of regions B and C indicate an almost solar oxygen abundance, if compared with radiation models of HII regions. NGC7796-DW1 occupies a particular role in the group of transition-type galaxies with respect to its origin and current evolutionary state, being the companion of an IE. The dwarf-dwarf merger scenario is excluded because of the missing metal-rich merger component. A viable alternative is gas accretion from a reservoir of cold, metal-rich gas. NGC7796 has to provide this gas within its X-ray bright halo. As illustrated by NGC7796-DW1, cold accretion may be a general solution to the problem of extended star formation histories in transition dwarf galaxies. (abridged)Comment: comments: 13 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic

Probing the Low Mass X-ray Binaries/Globular Cluster connection in NGC1399

We present a wide field study of the Globular Clusters/Low Mass X-ray Binaries connection in the cD elliptical NGC1399, combining HST/ACS and Chandra high resolution data. We find evidence that LMXB formation likelihood is influenced by GCs structural parameters, in addition to the well known effects of mass and metallicity, independently from galactocentric distance.Comment: in press in the Proceedings of the X-ray 2009 Conference, 7-11 September 2009, Bologna, Ital

Towards a calibration of SSP models from the optical to the mid-infrared

Our knowledge about unresolved stellar systems comes from comparing integrated-light properties to SSP models. Therefore it is crucial to calibrate the latter as well as possible by integrated-light colors of clusters that have reliable ages and metallicities (deep CMDs and/or spectroscopy of individual giants). This is especially true for the NIR and MIR, which contain important population synthesis diagnostics and are often used to derive masses of stellar systems at hight redshifts. Here we present integrated colors of MC clusters using new VRI photometry and 2MASS data. In the imminent future we will include MIR data from Spitzer/IRAC. We compare our new colors with popular SSP models to illustrate their strengths and weaknesses.Comment: 2 pages, 1 figure, to appear in the proceedings of IAU Symposium No241 "Stellar Populations as building blocks of galaxies", A. Vazdekis & R. Peletier, ed

The Chemistry of Extragalactic Globular Clusters

We present preliminary results of VLT/FORS spectroscopy of globular clusters in nearby early-type galaxies. Our project aims at studying the chemistry and determine the ages of globular cluster (sub-)populations. First results indicate that the different galaxies host from little to significant intermediate-age populations, and that the latter have alpha-element over iron ratios closer to solar than the old population that show an alpha-element enhancement similar to the diffuse stellar light.Comment: 4 pages (incl 2 figures) to appear in the proceedings of "Extragalactic Globular Cluster Systems", ed.M.Kissler-Patig, Springer; see also related contributions by T.H.Puzia and M.Hempel et a

A spectroscopically confirmed z=1.327 galaxy-scale deflector magnifying a z~8 Lyman-Break galaxy in the Brightest of Reionizing Galaxies survey

We present a detailed analysis of an individual case of gravitational lensing of a $z\sim8$ Lyman-Break galaxy (LBG) in a blank field, identified in Hubble Space Telescope imaging obtained as part of the Brightest of Reionizing Galaxies survey. To investigate the close proximity of the bright ($m_{AB}=25.8$) $Y_{098}$-dropout to a small group of foreground galaxies, we obtained deep spectroscopy of the dropout and two foreground galaxies using VLT/X-Shooter. We detect H-$\alpha$, H-$\beta$, [OIII] and [OII] emission in the brightest two foreground galaxies (unresolved at the natural seeing of $0.8$ arcsec), placing the pair at $z=1.327$. We can rule out emission lines contributing all of the observed broadband flux in $H_{160}$ band at $70\sigma$, allowing us to exclude the $z\sim8$ candidate as a low redshift interloper with broadband photometry dominated by strong emission lines. The foreground galaxy pair lies at the peak of the luminosity, redshift and separation distributions for deflectors of strongly lensed $z\sim8$ objects, and we make a marginal detection of a demagnified secondary image in the deepest ($J_{125}$) filter. We show that the configuration can be accurately modelled by a singular isothermal ellipsoidal deflector and a S\'{e}rsic source magnified by a factor of $\mu=4.3\pm0.2$. The reconstructed source in the best-fitting model is consistent with luminosities and morphologies of $z\sim8$ LBGs in the literature. The lens model yields a group mass of $9.62\pm0.31\times10^{11} M_{\odot}$ and a stellar mass-to-light ratio for the brightest deflector galaxy of $M_{\star}/L_{B}=2.3^{+0.8}_{-0.6} M_{\odot}/L_{\odot}$ within its effective radius. The foreground galaxies' redshifts would make this one of the few strong lensing deflectors discovered at $z>1$.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 16 pages, 11 figures, 3 table

Ages, Metallicities, and [alpha/Fe] ratios of globular clusters in NGC 147, NGC 185, and NGC 205

We present measurements of ages, metallicities, and [alpha/Fe] ratios for 16 globular clusters (GC) in NGC 147, NGC 185, and NGC 205 and of the central regions of the diffuse galaxy light in NGC 185, and NGC 205. Our results are based on spectra obtained with the SCORPIO multi-slit spectrograph at the 6-m telescope of the Russian Academy of Sciences. We include in our analysis high-quality HST/WFPC2 photometry of individual stars in the studied GCs to investigate the influence of their horizontal branch (HB) morphology on the spectroscopic analysis. All our sample GCs appear to be old (T>8 Gyr) and metal-poor ([Z/H] <~ -1.1), except for the globular clusters Hubble V in NGC 205 (T=1.2+/-0.6 Gyr, [Z/H]=-0.6+/-0.2), Hubble VI in NGC 205 (T=4+/-2 Gyr, [Z/H]=-0.8+/-0.2), and FJJVII in NGC 185 (T=7+/-3 Gyr, [Z/H]=-0.8+/-0.2). The majority of our GC sample has solar [alpha/Fe] enhancements in contrast to the halo population of GCs in M31 and the Milky Way. The HB morphologies for our sample GCs follow the same behavior with metallicity as younger halo Galactic globular clusters. We show that it is unlikely that they bias our spectroscopic age estimates based on Balmer absorption line indices. Spectroscopic ages and metallicities of the central regions in NGC 205 and NGC 185 coincide with those obtained from color-magnitude diagrams. The central field stellar populations in these galaxies have approximately the same age as their most central GCs (Hubble V in NGC 205 and FJJIII in NGC 185), but are more metal-rich than the central globular clusters.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS, a high-resolution version of the paper is available from http://www.stsci.edu/~tpuzi