Interesting chemically peculiar field stars may reflect their stellar evolution history and their possible origin in a different environment from where they are found now, which is one of the most important research fields in Galactic archaeology. To explore this further, we have used the CN-CH bands around 4000 A to identify N-rich metal-poor field stars in LAMOST DR3. Here we expand our N-rich metal-poor field star sample to ~100 stars in LAMOST DR5, where 53 of them are newly found in this work. We investigate light elements of the common stars between our sample and APOGEE DR14. While Mg, Al, and Si abundances generally agree with the hypothesis that N-rich metal-poor field stars come from enriched populations in globular clusters, it is still inconclusive for C, N, and O. After integrating the orbits of our N-rich field stars and a control sample of normal metal-poor field stars, we find that N-rich field stars have different orbital parameter distributions compared to the control sample, specifically, apocentric distances, maximum vertical amplitude (Zmax), orbital energy, and z direction angular momentum (Lz). The orbital parameters of N-rich field stars indicate that most of them are inner-halo stars. The kinematics of N-rich field stars support their possible GC origin. The spatial and velocity distributions of our bona fide N-rich field star sample are important observational evidence to constrain simulations of the origin of these interesting objects.
Globular cluster progenitors may have been detected by \textit{HST}, and are predicted to be observable with \textit{JWST} and ground-based extremely-large telescopes with adaptive optics. This has the potential to elucidate the issue of globular cluster formation and the origins of significantly helium-enriched subpopulations, a problem in Galactic astronomy with no satisfactory theoretical solution. Given this context, we use model stellar tracks and isochrones to investigate the predicted observational properties of helium-enriched stellar populations in globular cluster progenitors. We fin…
We investigate the integrated far-ultraviolet (FUV) emission from globular clusters. We present new FUV photometry of M~87's clusters based on archival HST WFPC2 F170W observations. We use these data to test the reliability of published photometry based on HST STIS FUV-MAMA observations, which are now known to suffer from significant red-leak. We generally confirm these previous FUV detections, but suggest they may be somewhat fainter. We compare the FUV emission from bright ($M_{V} < -9.0$) clusters in the Milky Way, M~31, M~81 and M~87 to each other and to the predictions from stellar popula…
Multiple stellar populations are a widespread phenomenon among Galactic globular clusters. Even though the origin of the enriched material from which new generations of stars are produced remains unclear, it is likely that self-enrichment will be feasible only in clusters massive enough to retain this enriched material. We searched for multiple populations in the low mass (M~1.4 x 10^4 M_sun) globular cluster E 3, analyzing SOAR/Goodman multi-object spectroscopy centered on the blue CN absorption features of 23 red giant branch stars. We find that the CN abundance does not present the typical …
We present the first spectroscopic observations of the very metal-poor Milky Way globular cluster ESO280-SC06. Using spectra acquired with the 2dF/AAOmega spectrograph on the Anglo-Australian Telescope, we have identified 13 members of the cluster, and estimate from their infrared calcium triplet lines that the cluster has a metallicity of $\mathrm{[Fe/H]}=-2.48\substack{+0.06 \\ -0.11}$. This would make it the most metal-poor globular cluster known in the Milky Way. This result was verified with comparisons to three other metal-poor globular clusters that had been observed and analyzed in the…
Observations of pulsars in globular clusters (GCs) give evidence that more >10-20% of neutron stars (NSs) ever formed in GCs were retained there. However, the velocity distribution of field pulsars peaks at 5-10 times the escape velocities of GCs. Consequently, only a small fraction of GC-NSs should have been retained, even accounting for low-velocity NSs formed through electron-capture supernovae. Thus, too few low-velocity NSs should have been retained in GCs, giving rise to the NS retention problem in GCs. Here we suggest a novel solution, in which the progenitors of most GC-NSs were ONe wh…
SIRIUS: Identifying Metal-poor Stars Enriched by a Single Supernova in a Dwarf Galaxy Cosmological Zoom-in Simulation Resolving Individual Massive Stars
We have observed 15 red giant stars in the relatively massive, metal-poor globular cluster NGC 4833 using the Magellan Inamori Kyocera Echelle spectrograph at Magellan. We calculate stellar parameters for each star and perform a standard abundance analysis to derive abundances of 43 species of 39 elements, including 20 elements heavier than the iron group. We derive <[Fe/H]> = -2.25 +/- 0.02 from Fe I lines and <[Fe/H> = -2.19 +/- 0.013 from Fe II lines. We confirm earlier results that found no internal metallicity spread in NGC 4833, and there are no significant star-to-star abundance dispers…
Many scenarios for the origin of the chemical anomalies observed in globular clusters (GCs; i.e., multiple populations) require that GCs were much more massive at birth, up to $10-100\times$, than they are presently. This is invoked in order to have enough material processed through first generation stars in order to form the observed numbers of enriched stars (inferred to be second generation stars in these models). If such mass loss was due to tidal stripping, gas expulsion, or tidal interaction with the birth environment, there should be clear correlations between the fraction of enriched s…
Globular clusters trace the formation history of the spheroidal components of both our Galaxy and others, which represent the bulk of star formation over the history of the universe. They also exhibit a range of metallicities, with metal-poor clusters dominating the stellar halo of the Galaxy, and higher metallicity clusters found within the inner Galaxy, associated with the stellar bulge, or the thick disk. Age differences between these clusters can indicate the sequence in which the components of the Galaxy formed, and in particular which clusters were formed outside the Galaxy and later swa…
Heavy elements, those produced by neutron-capture reactions, have traditionally shown no star-to-star dispersion in all but a handful of metal-poor globular clusters (GCs). Recent detections of low [Pb/Eu] ratios or upper limits in several metal-poor GCs indicate that the heavy elements in these GCs were produced exclusively by an r-process. Reexamining GC heavy element abundances from the literature, we find unmistakable correlations between the [La/Fe] and [Eu/Fe] ratios in 4 metal-poor GCs (M5, M15, M92, and NGC 3201), only 2 of which were known previously. This indicates that the total r-p…
Dispersion among the light elements is common in globular clusters (GCs), while dispersion among heavier elements is less common. We present detection of r-process dispersion relative to Fe in 19 red giants of the metal-poor GC M92. Using spectra obtained with the Hydra multi-object spectrograph on the WIYN Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory, we derive differential abundances for 21 species of 19 elements. The Fe-group elements, plus Y and Zr, are homogeneous at a level of 0.07-0.16 dex. The heavy elements La, Eu, and Ho exhibit clear star-to-star dispersion spanning 0.5-0.8 dex. The …
Extremely metal poor (EMP) stars in the Milky Way inherited the chemical composition of the gas out of which they formed. They therefore carry the chemical fingerprint of the first stars in their spectral lines. It is commonly assumed that EMP stars form from gas that was enriched by only one progenitor supernova ('mono-enriched'). However, recent numerical simulations show that the first stars form in small clusters. Consequently, we expect several supernovae to contribute to the abundances of an EMP star ('multi-enriched'). We analyse seven recently observed EMP stars from the TOPoS survey b…
We present new large field-of-view ($\sim$1°$\times$1°) Ca-CN photometry of the prototypical metal-rich globular cluster 47 Tucanae (NGC 104). Our results are the following. (1) The populational number ratios of the red giant branch (RGB) and red horizontal branch (RHB) are in excellent agreement: n(CN-w):n(CN-s) = 30:70 ($\pm$1--2), where the CN-w and CN-s stand for the CN-weak and CN-strong populations, respectively. Both the CN-s RGB and RHB populations are more centrally concentrated than those of CN-w populations are. (2) Our photometric metallicities of individual RGB stars in each popul…
Star-to-star variations in abundances of the light elements carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and sodium have been observed in stars of all evolutionary phases in all Galactic globular clusters that have been thoroughly studied. The data available for studying this phenomenon, and the hypotheses as to its origin, have both co-evolved with observing technology; once high-resolution spectra were available even for main-sequence stars in globular clusters, scenarios involving multiple closely spaced stellar generations enriched by feedback from moderate- and high-mass stars began to gain traction in the …
We present the abundances analysis for a sample of 11 red giant branch stars in the metal-poor globular cluster NGC 6809 based on high-resolution spectra. Our main goals are to characterize its chemical composition and analyze this cluster's behavior associated with the Multiple Population (MPs) phenomenon. In our work we obtained the stellar parameters and chemical abundances of 24 elements (O, Na, Mg, Al, Si, Ca, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Sc, Ni, Cu, Zn, Y, Zr, Ba, La, Ce, Eu, Nd and Dy). We found a radial velocity of 174.7 $\pm$ 3.2 km $s^{-1}$ and a mean iron content of [Fe/H]=-2.01 $\pm$ 0.0…
We present high spatial resolution, far ultraviolet (FUV) F140LP observations of 12 massive globular clusters in M 31 obtained using the ACS/SBC on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). These observations resolve the cluster profiles to scales similar to their core radii and enable the study of the spatial distribution of blue and extreme horizontal branch (HB) stars, which dominate the emission in the F140LP images. We confirm that some of these clusters have excess FUV emission, suggesting additional hot populations beyond those expected by canonical single stellar populations models. We find no…
The majority of Galactic globular clusters (GCs) contain multiple stellar populations displaying specific chemical abundance variations. In particular, GCs generally contain a `primordial' population with abundances similar to field stars, along with an `enriched' population exhibiting light element anomalies. In this paper we present a homogeneous and wide-view analysis of multiple stellar populations in 28 Galactic GCs. By using a combination of HST photometry together with wide-field, ground-based photometry we are able to analyse between 84% and 99% of all stars in each cluster. For each G…
We report the first detection of circumstellar CO in a globular cluster. Observations with ALMA have detected the CO J=3-2 and SiO v=1 J=8-7 transitions at 345 and 344 GHz, respectively, around V3 in 47 Tucanae (NGC 104; [Fe/H] = -0.72 dex), a star on the asymptotic giant branch. The CO line is detected at 7 sigma at a rest velocity v_LSR = -40.6 km/s and expansion velocity of 3.2 +/- ~0.4 km/s. The brighter, asymmetric SiO line may indicate a circumstellar maser. The stellar wind is slow compared to similar Galactic stars, but the dust opacity remains similar to Galactic comparisons. We sugge…
Not all nitrogen-rich field stars originate from globular clusters
Universitá degli Studi di Bologna（博洛尼亚大学）；INAF - Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri（意大利国家天体物理研究所-阿切里天文台）；School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Birmingham（伯明翰大学物理与天文学学院）；INAF - Osservatorio di Astrofisica e Scienza dello Spazio di Bologna（意大利国家天体物理研究所-博洛尼亚天文科学与空间观测站）；INAF - Osservatorio Astrofisico di Catania（意大利国家天体物理研究所-卡塔尼亚天文台）；Stellar Astrophysics Centre, Department of Physics & Astronomy, Aarhus University（奥胡斯大学物理与天文学系恒星天体物理学中心）
We present O, Na, and Fe abundances, as well as radial velocities, for 113 red giant branch (RGB) and asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars in the globular cluster M13. The abundances and velocities are based on spectra obtained with the WIYN-Hydra spectrograph, and the observations range in luminosity from the horizontal branch (HB) to RGB-tip. The results are examined in the context of recent globular cluster formation scenarios. We find that M13 exhibits many key characteristics that suggest its formation and chemical enrichment are well-described by current models. Some of these observations…
Metal-poor globular clusters (GCs) exhibit intriguing Al-Mg anti-correlations and possible Si-Al correlations, which are important clues to decipher the multiple-population phenomenon. NGC 5053 is one of the most metal-poor GCs in the nearby Universe, and has been suggested to be associated with the Sagittarius (Sgr) dwarf galaxy, due to its similarity in location and radial velocity with one of the Sgr arms. In this work, we simulate the orbit of NGC 5053, and argue against a physical connection between Sgr and NGC 5053. On the other hand, the Mg, Al, and Si spectral lines, which are difficul…
We started a photometric survey using the WFC3/UVIS instrument onboard the Hubble Space Telescope to search for multiple populations within Magellanic Cloud star clusters at various ages. In this paper, we introduce this survey. As first results of this programme, we also present multi-band photometric observations of NGC 121 in different filters taken with the WFC3/UVIS and ACS/WFC instruments. We analyze the colour-magnitude diagram (CMD) of NGC 121, which is the only "classical" globular cluster within the Small Magellanic Cloud. Thereby, we use the pseudo-colour C_(F336W,F438W,F343N)=(F336…
Galactic globular clusters (GCs) are known to host multiple stellar populations: a first generation with a chemical pattern typical of halo field stars and a second generation (SG) enriched in Na and Al and depleted in O and Mg. Both stellar generations are found at different evolutionary stages (e.g., the main-sequence turnoff, the subgiant branch, and the red giant branch). The non detection of SG asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars in several metal-poor ([Fe/H] < -1) GCs suggests that not all SG stars ascend the AGB phase, and that failed AGB stars may be very common in metal-poor GCs. This…
High-resolution optical spectra are analyzed for two of the four metal rich mildly hydrogen-poor or helium-enhanced giants discovered by Hema and Pandey (2014) along with their comparison normal (hydrogen-rich) giants of Omega Cen. The strengths of the MgH bands in the spectra of the program stars are analyzed for their derived stellar parameters. The observed spectra of the sample (hydrogen-poor) stars (LEID 39048 and LEID 34225) show weaker MgH bands unlike in the spectra of the normal comparison giants (LEID 61067 and LEID 32169). The magnesium abundance derived from MgH bands is less by 0.…
We present detailed radiative transfer simulations of the reionization history of the Milky Way by metal-poor globular clusters. We identify potential metal-poor globular cluster candidates within the Aquarius simulation using dark matter halo velocity dispersions. We calculate the local ionization fields via a photon-conserving, three dimensional non-equilibrium chemistry code and allow the model to propagate through to the present day. The key feature of the model is that globular cluster formation is suppressed if the local gas is ionized. We find that our spatial treatment of the ionizatio…
Using the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), we have obtained a direct trigonometric parallax for the nearest metal-poor globular cluster, NGC 6397. Although trigonometric parallaxes have been previously measured for many nearby open clusters, this is the first parallax for an ancient metal-poor population -- one that is used as a fundamental template in many stellar population studies. This high-precision measurement was enabled by the HST/WFC3 spatial-scanning mode, providing hundreds of astrometric measurements for dozens of stars in the cluster and also for Gal…
We report the discovery of the only very nitrogen-enhanced metal-poor star known in a Galactic globular cluster. This star, in the very metal-poor cluster ESO280-SC06, has [N/Fe]$>+2.5$, while the other stars in the cluster show no obvious enhancement in nitrogen. Around 80 NEMP stars are known in the field, and their abundance patterns are believed to reflect mass transfer from a binary companion in the asymptotic giant branch phase. The dense environment of globular clusters is detrimental to the long-term survival of binary systems, resulting in a low observed binary fraction among red gian…
Nearly all Galactic globular clusters host stars that display characteristic abundance anti-correlations, like the O-rich/Na-poor pattern typical of field halo stars, together with O-poor/Na-rich additional components. A recent spectroscopic investigation questioned the presence of O-poor/Na-rich stars amongst a sample of asymptotic giant branch stars in the cluster M 4, at variance with the spectroscopic detection of a O-poor/Na-rich component along both the cluster red giant branch and horizontal branch. This is contrary to what is expected from the cluster horizontal branch morphology and h…
Metal-poor globular clusters (GCs) show intriguing Al-Mg and Si-Al correlations, which are important clues to decipher the multiple population phenomenon. NGC 5053 is one of the most metal-poor GCs, and has been suggested to be associated with the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy (Sgr), due to its similar location and radial velocity with one of the Sgr arms. In this work, we simulate the orbit of NGC 5053, and argue against the connection between Sgr and NGC 5053. Meanwhile, Mg, Al, and Si spectral lines, which are difficult to detect in the optical spectra, have been detected in the near-infrared AP…
We present radial velocities, stellar parameters, and detailed abundances of 39 elements derived from high-resolution spectroscopic observations of red giant stars in the luminous, metal-poor globular cluster NGC 5824. We observe 26 stars in NGC 5824 using the Michigan/Magellan Fiber System (M2FS) and two stars using the Magellan Inamori Kyocera Echelle (MIKE) spectrograph. We derive a mean metallicity of [Fe/H]=-1.94+/-0.02 (statistical) +/-0.10 (systematic). The metallicity dispersion of this sample of stars, 0.08 dex, is in agreement with previous work and does not exceed the expected obser…
We study the effects of non-local thermodynamic equilibrium (NLTE) on the abundance analysis of barium, magnesium, and manganese from integrated light spectroscopy, as typically applied to the analysis of extra-galactic star clusters and galaxies. In this paper, our reference object is a synthetic simple stellar population (SSP) representing a mono-metallic alpha-enhanced globular cluster with the metallicity [Fe/H]=-2.0 and the age of 11 Gyr. We used the MULTI2.3 program to compute LTE and NLTE equivalent widths of spectral lines of Mg I, Mn I, and Ba II ions, which are commonly used in abund…
We examine the radial distributions of stellar populations in the globular cluster (GC) M15, using HST/WFC3 photometry of red giants in the nitrogen-sensitive F343N-F555W color. Surprisingly, we find that giants with "primordial" composition (i.e., N abundances similar to those in field stars) are the most centrally concentrated within the WFC3 field. We then combine our WFC3 data with SDSS u, g photometry and find that the trend reverses for radii >1' (3 pc) where the ratio of primordial to N-enhanced giants increases outwards, as already found by Lardo et al. The ratio of primordial to enric…
Color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) derived from Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Advanced Camera for Surveys F606W,F814W photometry of 6 globular clusters (GCs) are presented. The six GCs form two loose groupings in Galactocentric distance (Rgc): IC 4499, NGC 6426, and Ruprecht 106 at ~15-20 kpc and NGC 7006, Palomar 15, and Pyxis at ~40 kpc. The CMDs allow the ages to be estimated from the main sequence turnoff in every case. In addition, the age of Palomar 5 (Rgc ~ 18 kpc) is estimated using archival HST Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 V,I photometry. The age analysis reveals the following: IC 4499, …
It has been a long-standing open question why observed globular cluster (GC) populations of different metallicities differ in their ages and spatial distributions, with metal-poor GCs being the older and radially more extended of the two. We use the suite of 25 Milky Way-mass cosmological zoom-in simulations from the E-MOSAICS project, which self-consistently model the formation and evolution of stellar clusters and their host galaxies, to understand the properties of observed GC populations. We find that the different ages and spatial distributions of metal-poor and metal-rich GCs are the res…
We incorporate a semi-analytic formula for the main sequence lifetime of helium-rich stars in N-body simulations of multiple population globular clusters to investigate how the enriched helium stars impact the dynamics of globular clusters. We show that a globular cluster with a helium-rich concentrated population will be slightly smaller than a globular cluster with a normal-helium second generation, with the largest difference seen in the extended normal-helium population. This effect is shown both for a cluster in isolation and one in a realistic Milky Way tidal field. We show that this eff…
Wide-field deep gri images obtained with the Megacam of the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) are used to investigate the spatial configuration of stars around five metal-poor globular cluster M15, M30, M53, NGC 5053, and NGC 5466, in a field-of-view ~3 degree. Applying a mask filtering algorithm to the color-magnitude diagrams of the observed stars, we sorted cluster's member star candidates that are used to examine the characteristics of the spatial stellar distribution surrounding the target clusters. The smoothed surface density maps and the overlaid isodensity contours indicate that a…
The most massive and complex globular clusters in the Galaxy are thought to have originated as the nuclear cores of now tidally disrupted dwarf galaxies, but the connection between globular clusters and dwarf galaxies is tenuous with the M54/Sagittarius system representing the only unambiguous link. The globular cluster Omega Centauri (w Cen) is more massive and chemically diverse than M 54, and is thought to have been the nuclear star cluster of either the Sequoia or Gaia-Enceladus galaxy. Local Group dwarf galaxies with masses equivalent to these systems often host significant populations of…
Stellar models for -2.5 <= [Fe/H] <= -0.5 that have been computed for variations in the C:N:O abundance ratio (for two different values of [CNO/Fe]) are compared with HST Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) observations of the globular clusters (GCs) 47 Tuc, NGC 6362, M5, M5, M55, and M92. The bolometric corrections used to transpose the models to the observed planes are based on new MARCS synthetic spectra that incorporate improved treatments of molecules that involve atoms of C, N, and O. On the assumption of well-supported distance moduli and reddenings, isochrones for [O/Fe] = 0.6 and [m/Fe] = 0.4 …
Globular clusters are some of the oldest bound stellar structures observed in the Universe. They are ubiquitous in large galaxies and are believed to trace intense star formation events and the hierarchical build-up of structure. Observations of globular clusters in the Milky Way, and a wide variety of other galaxies, have found evidence for a `metallicity floor', whereby no globular clusters are found with chemical (`metal') abundances below approximately 0.3 to 0.4 per cent of that of the Sun. The existence of this metallicity floor may reflect a minimum mass and a maximum redshift for survi…
The Phoenix stellar stream has a low intrinsic dispersion in velocity and metallicity that implies the progenitor was probably a low mass globular cluster. In this work we use Magellan/MIKE high-dispersion spectroscopy of eight Phoenix stream red giants to confirm this scenario. In particular, we find negligible intrinsic scatter in metallicity ($σ(\mathrm{[Fe~II/H]}) = 0.04^{+0.11}_{-0.03}$) and a large peak-to-peak range in [Na/Fe] and [Al/Fe] abundance ratios, consistent with the light element abundance patterns seen in the most metal-poor globular clusters. However, unlike any other globul…
Multiple stellar populations (MPs) are a distinct characteristic of Globular Clusters (GCs). Their general properties have been widely studied among main sequence, red giant branch (RGB) and horizontal branch (HB) stars, but a common framework is still missing at later evolutionary stages. We studied the MP phenomenon along the AGB sequences in 58 GCs, observed with the Hubble Space Telescope in ultraviolet (UV) and optical filters. By using UV-optical color-magnitude diagrams, we selected the AGB members of each cluster and identified the AGB candidates of the metal-enhanced population in typ…
We study the impact of Ly$α$ radiation feedback on globular cluster (GC) formation. In this Letter, we analytically derive the relation between star formation efficiency (SFE) and metallicity in spherical clouds with the Ly$α$ radiation feedback. Our models show that the SFE becomes small as the metallicity decreases. In metal-poor gas clouds, Ly$α$ photons are trapped for a long time and exert strong radiation force to the gas, resulting in the suppression of star formation. We find that bound star-clusters (SFE $\gtrsim$ 0.5) form only for the metallicity higher than $\sim 10^{-2.5}~Z_{\odot…
The halo and disc globular cluster population can be used as a tracer of the primordial epochs of the Milky Way formation. In this work, literature data of globular clusters ages, chemical abundances, and structural parameters are studied, explicitly focussing on the origin of the known split in the age-metallicity relation of globular clusters. When the alpha-element abundances, which are less strongly affected by the internal light-element spread of globular clusters (Si, Ca), are considered, a very low observational scatter among metal-poor clusters is observed. A plateau at [SiCa/Fe]~0.35 …
Globular Clusters (GCs) in the Milky Way represent the ideal laboratory to establish the age of the oldest stellar populations and to measure the color-magnitude relation of stars. Infrared (IR) photometry of these objects provides a new opportunity to accomplish this task. In particular, at low stellar masses, the stellar main sequence (MS) in an IR color-magnitude diagram (CMD) exhibits a sharp "kink" (due to opacity effects in M dwarfs), such that lower mass and cooler dwarfs become bluer in the F110W - F160W color baseline and not redder. This inversion of the color-magnitude relation offe…
We perform an evolutionary multivariate analysis of a sample of 54 Galactic globular clusters with high-quality colour-magnitude diagrams and well-determined ages. The four parameters adopted for the analysis are: metallicity, age, maximum temperature on the horizontal branch, and absolute V magnitude. Our cladistic analysis breaks the sample into three novel groups. An a posteriori kinematical analysis puts groups 1 and 2 in the halo, and group 3 in the thick disc. The halo and disc clusters separately follow a luminosity-metallicity relation of much weaker slope than galaxies. This property …
We report the confirmation of an old, metal-poor globular cluster in the nearby dwarf irregular galaxy Sextans A, the first globular cluster known in this galaxy. The cluster, which we designate as Sextans A-GC1, lies some 4.4 arcminutes ($\sim1.8$ kpc) to the SW of the galaxy centre and clearly resolves into stars in sub-arcsecond seeing ground-based imaging.We measure an integrated magnitude $V=18.04$, corresponding to an absolute magnitude, $M_{V,0} = -7.85$. This gives an inferred mass $M\sim$1.6$\times10^5~M\odot$, assuming a Kroupa IMF. An integrated spectrum of Sextans A-GC1 reveals a h…
We investigate the spatial density configuration of stars around four metal-poor globular clusters (NGC 6266, NGC 6626, NGC 6642 and NGC 6723) in the Galactic bulge region using wide-field deep J, H, and K imaging data obtained with the WFCAM near-infrared array on United Kingdom Infrared Telescope. Statistical weighted filtering algorithm for the stars on the color-magnitude diagram is applied in order to sort cluster member candidates from the field star contamination. In two-dimensional isodensity contour maps of the clusters, we find that all of the four globular clusters exhibit strong ev…
We recently found the globular cluster (GC) EXT8 in M31 to have an extremely low metallicity of [Fe/H]=-2.91+/-0.04 using high-resolution spectroscopy. Here we present a colour-magnitude diagram (CMD) for EXT8, obtained with the Wide Field Camera 3 on board the Hubble Space Telescope. Compared with the CMDs of metal-poor Galactic GCs, we find that the upper red giant branch (RGB) of EXT8 is about 0.03 mag bluer in F606W-F814W and slightly steeper, as expected from the low spectroscopic metallicity. The observed colour spread on the upper RGB is consistent with being caused entirely by the meas…
We derived Potassium abundances in red giant branch stars in the Galactic globular clusters NGC104 (144 stars), NGC6752 (134 stars) and NGC6809 (151 stars) using high-resolution spectra collected with FLAMES at the ESO - Very Large Telescope. In the considered samples we do not find significant intrinsic spreads in [K/Fe] (confirming the previous findings by Carretta et al.), at variance with the cases of the massive clusters NGC2419 and NGC2808. Additionally, marginally significant [K/Fe]-[O/Fe] anti-correlations are found in NGC104 and NGC6809, and [K/Fe]-[Na/Fe] correlations are found in NG…
Globular clusters can form inside their host galaxies at high redshift when gas densities were higher and gas-rich mergers were common. They can also form inside lower-mass galaxies that have since been accreted and tidally disrupted, leaving their globular cluster complement bound to higher-mass halos. We argue that the age-metallicity-specific orbital energy relation in a galaxy's globular cluster system can be used to identify its origin. Gas-rich mergers should produce tightly bound systems in which metal-rich clusters are younger than metal-poor clusters. Globular clusters formed in massi…
We report on the discovery of a super-Li rich turn-off star in the old (12 Gyr), metal poor ([Fe/H]=-2.1 dex) globular cluster (GC) NGC 6397, based on high-resolution MIKE/Magellan spectra. This star shows an unusually high lithium abundance of A(Li)_NLTE = 4.03 +/- 0.06 +/- 0.14 dex (or, 4.21, accounting for possible contamination from a binary companion) that lies above the canonical Li-plateau by a factor of 100. This is the highest Li enhancement found in a Galactic GC dwarf star to date. We discuss several enhancement mechanisms, but none can unambiguously explain such a high overabundanc…
M64 is a nearby spiral galaxy with a Type III anti-truncation component. To trace the origin of the Type III component, we present Hubble Space Telescope/Advanced Camera for Surveys $F606W/F814W$ photometry of resolved stars in a field located in the outer disk ($2.5' \lesssim r \lesssim 6.5'$) of M64. At $r\approx 5.5'$ (7 kpc) to the east, we discover a new metal-poor globular cluster ($R_{\rm eff}=5.73\pm0.02$ pc and $M_V=-9.54\pm0.09$ mag), M64-GC1. This is the first globular cluster found in M64. The color-magnitude diagram (CMD) of the resolved stars in M64-GC1 is well matched by 12 Gyr …
