HST archival survey of intracluster globular clusters in Virgo cluster

  • Lim, Sung-Soon (Depaartment of Physics and Astronomy, Seoul National University) ;
  • Park, Hong-Soo (Depaartment of Physics and Astronomy, Seoul National University) ;
  • Hwang, Ho-Seong (Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory) ;
  • Lee, Myung-Gyoon (Depaartment of Physics and Astronomy, Seoul National University)
  • Published : 2012.04.03

Abstract

Recently it is found that the globular clusters are not only bound in their host galaxies, but also are wandering between galaxies in Virgo and Coma clusters. The cluster-wide distribution of these intracluster globular clusters (IGCs) suggests that IGCs are an important probe to understand hierarchical structure formation. We present a survey of IGCs in Virgo cluster using HST archive images for four HST/ACS fields located from about 9 arcmin to 40 acrmin from the cluster center. We find ten new IGCs and confirm four previously known IGCs. The number density of IGCs decreases as the distance from the cluster center increases. We derive integrated photometry of IGCs. We also obtain photometry of resolved stars in the outer region of each cluster. These IGCs are fainter than $M_V{\approx}-9.5$ and mostly blue in (V-I) color. showing that they are mostly metal poor. The locations of red giant branch stars of IGCs in color-magnitude diagrams also show that they are meal-poor. We discuss the implications of these results.

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