Bibcode
DOI
Burstein, David; Li, Yong; Freeman, Kenneth C.; Norris, John E.; Bessell, Michael S.; Bland-Hawthorn, Joss; Gibson, Brad K.; Beasley, Michael A.; Lee, Hyun-chul; Barbuy, Beatriz; Huchra, John P.; Brodie, Jean P.; Forbes, Duncan A.
Bibliographical reference
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 614, Issue 1, pp. 158-166.
Advertised on:
10
2004
Journal
Citations
51
Refereed citations
48
Description
We find that the globular cluster (GC) systems of the Milky Way and of
our neighboring spiral galaxy, M31, comprise two distinct entities,
differing in three respects. First, M31 has a set of young GCs, ranging
in age from a few times 102 Myr to 5 Gyr old, as well as old
GCs. No such very young GCs are known in the Milky Way. Second, we
confirm that the oldest M31 GCs have much higher nitrogen abundances
than do Galactic GCs at equivalent metallicities, while carbon
abundances appear normal for the GCs in both galaxies. Third, Morrison
and coworkers have shown that M31 has a subcomponent of GCs that follow
closely the disk rotation curve of that galaxy. Such a GC system in our
own Galaxy has yet to be found. The only plausible scenario for the
existence of the young M31 GC comes from the
hierarchical-clustering-merging (HCM) paradigm for galaxy formation. We
infer that M31 has absorbed more of its contingent of dwarf systems in
the recent past than has the Milky Way. This inference has three
implications: First, all spiral galaxies could differ in their GC
properties, depending on how many companions each galaxy has and when
the parent galaxy absorbs them. In this spectrum of possibilities,
apparently the Milky Way ties down one end, in which almost all of its
GCs were absorbed 10-12 Gyr ago. Second, it suggests that young GCs are
preferentially formed in the dwarf companions of parent galaxies and
then absorbed by the parent galaxy during mergers. Third, the young GCs
seen in tidally interacting galaxies might come from the dwarf
companions of these galaxies, rather than be made anew in the tidal
interaction. However, there is no ready explanation for the marked
difference in nitrogen abundance for the stars in the old M31 GCs
relative to those in the oldest Galactic GCs, especially the most
metal-poor GCs in both galaxies. The predictions made by Li &
Burstein regarding the origin of nitrogen abundance in GCs are
consistent with what is found for the old M31 GCs compared to that for
the two 5 Gyr old M31 GCs.
Observations reported here were obtained at the MMT Observatory, a joint
facility of the Smithsonian Institution and the University of Arizona.