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arXiv 2010.04046astro-ph.GA
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巨型椭圆星系中祖先球状星团的持续形成

Sustained formation of progenitor globular clusters in a giant elliptical galaxy

Jeremy Lim, Emily Wong, Youichi Ohyama, Tom Broadhurst, Elinor Medezinski

摘要:

球状星团(GC)被认为是星系早期形成阶段的古老遗迹,尽管它们的物理起源仍然不确定。GC在大质量椭圆星系周围数量最多,在那里它们可以表现出广泛的色散,这表明金属丰度分布很广。在这里,我们表明,数以千计的紧凑和大质量(~5 $\times$ 10 $^{\rm 3}-$ 3 $\times$ 10 $^{\rm 6} M_{\odot}$)星团已形成在一个近似稳定的速度,至少在过去的~ 1 Gyr围绕NGC 1275,中央巨型椭圆星系的英仙座集群。超过~1Gyr,这些星团在宽带光学颜色上与更多的GC无法区分。它们的数量分布表现出与GC相似的光度和质量依赖性,而它们的空间分布类似于与团内气体冷却相关的多相气体的连续网络。这些星团的持续形成表明,祖先GC可以形成在宇宙历史上从冷却的团内气体,从而有助于大量和广泛的色散$-$由于年龄的传播,除了在金属丰度$-$的GC在大规模的椭圆星系的传播。前身GC的质量远低于银河系疏散星团的最大质量,肯定了星团在所有质量尺度上的共同形成机制,而不管它们的形成路径如何。

英文摘要:

Globular clusters (GCs) are thought to be ancient relics from the early formative phase of galaxies, although their physical origin remains uncertain. GCs are most numerous around massive elliptical galaxies, where they can exhibit a broad colour dispersion, suggesting a wide metallicity spread. Here, we show that many thousands of compact and massive (~5$\times$10$^{\rm 3}-$3$\times$ 10$^{\rm 6} M_{\odot}$) star clusters have formed at an approximately steady rate over, at least, the past ~1Gyr around NGC 1275, the central giant elliptical galaxy of the Perseus cluster. Beyond ~1Gyr, these star clusters are indistinguishable in broadband optical colours from the more numerous GCs. Their number distribution exhibits a similar dependence with luminosity and mass as the GCs, whereas their spatial distribution resembles a filamentary network of multiphase gas associated with cooling of the intracluster gas. The sustained formation of these star clusters demonstrates that progenitor GCs can form over cosmic history from cooled intracluster gas, thus contributing to both the large number and broad colour dispersion$-$owing to an age spread, in addition to a spread in metallicity$-$of GCs in massive elliptical galaxies. The progenitor GCs have minimal masses well below the maximal masses of Galactic open star clusters, affirming a common formation mechanism for star clusters over all mass scales irrespective of their formative pathways.

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