Chemical composition of globular clusters in dwarf galaxies

Abstract

This contribution gives an update on on-going efforts to characterise the detailed chemical abundances of Local Group globular clusters (GCs) from integrated-light spectroscopy. Observations of a sample of 20 GCs so far, located primarily within dwarf galaxies, show that at low metallicities the [α/Fe] ratios are generally indistinguishable from those in Milky Way GCs. However, the “knee” above which [α/Fe] decreases towards Solar-scaled values occurs at lower metallicities in the dwarfs, implying that GCs follow the same trends seen in field stars. Efforts are underway to establish NLTE corrections for integrated-light abundance measurements, and preliminary results for Mn are discussed.