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arXiv 0911.0701astro-ph.GAastro-ph.CO
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关于球状星团双峰性的起源

On the origin of globular cluster bimodality

Oleg Y. Gnedin

摘要:

大多数大星系中的球状星团系统显示双峰的颜色和金属丰度分布,这通常被解释为指示两种不同的团簇形成模式。富金属(红色)和贫金属(蓝色)的星系团在其宿主星系中具有系统性的不同位置和运动学。然而,红色和蓝色星团具有相似的内部性质,例如质量,大小和年龄。因此,有趣的是,探索是否富金属和贫金属的集群可以形成一个共同的机制,仍然是符合双峰分布。我们表明,如果所有的球状星团的形成,只有在合并的大质量富含气体的原星系盘,它们的金属丰度分布可能是统计上一致的银河系球状星团。我们从宇宙学暗物质模拟中获取星系组装的历史,并将其与观测到的可用于恒星形成的冷气体量的标度关系相结合。在最佳拟合模型中,早期较小宿主的合并只产生蓝色星系团,而随后具有一定质量范围的祖先星系合并产生红色和蓝色星系团。因此,双峰性是少数晚期大规模合并事件的自然结果。我们计算了星系团的质量损失,包括两体散射和恒星演化的影响,发现蓝色星系团比红色星系团更多地被破坏,这是因为它们的初始质量较小,年龄较大。最佳拟合模型中的现今质量函数与银河系分布一致。然而,模型集群的空间分布比观察到的要广泛得多,并且与我们模型的参数无关。

英文摘要:

Globular cluster systems in most large galaxies display bimodal color and metallicity distributions, which are frequently interpreted as indicating two distinct modes of cluster formation. The metal-rich (red) and metal-poor (blue) clusters have systematically different locations and kinematics in their host galaxies. However, the red and blue clusters have similar internal properties, such as the masses, sizes, and ages. It is therefore interesting to explore whether both metal-rich and metal-poor clusters could form by a common mechanism and still be consistent with the bimodal distribution. We show that if all globular clusters form only during mergers of massive gas-rich protogalactic disks, their metallicity distribution could be statistically consistent with that of the Galactic globulars. We take galaxy assembly history from cosmological dark matter simulations and couple it with the observed scaling relations for the amount of cold gas available for star formation. In the best-fit model, early mergers of smaller hosts create exclusively blue clusters, whereas subsequent mergers of progenitor galaxies with a range of masses create both red and blue clusters. Thus bimodality arises naturally as the result of a small number of late massive merger events. We calculate the cluster mass loss, including the effects of two-body scattering and stellar evolution, and find that more blue clusters than red clusters are disrupted by the present time, because of their smaller initial masses and larger ages. The present-day mass function in the best-fit model is consistent with the Galactic distribution. However, the spatial distribution of model clusters is much more extended than observed and is independent of the parameters of our model.

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