Explaining the Color Distributions of Globular Cluster Systems in Elliptical Galaxies

Details Explaining the Color Distributions of Globular Cluster Systems in Elliptical Galaxies Explaining the Color Distributions of Globular Cluster Systems in Elliptical Galaxies

2006-01-23

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0601526v2

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Science, 311, 1129; Minor changes to text to match the published version (9 pages, 3 figures)

Scientific paper

10.1126/science.1122294

The colors of globular clusters in most of large elliptical galaxies are bimodal. This is generally taken as evidence for the presence of two cluster subpopulations that have different geneses. However, here we find that, because of the non-linear nature of the metallicity-to-color transformation, a coeval group of old clusters with a unimodal metallicity spread can exhibit color bimodality. The models of cluster colors indicate that the horizontal-branch stars are the main drivers behind the empirical non-linearity. We show that the scenario gives simple and cohesive explanations for all the key observations, and could simplify theories of elliptical galaxy formation.

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