The impact of galaxy harassment on the globular cluster systems of early-type cluster dwarf galaxies

Smith, Rory; Sánchéz-Janssen, R.; Fellhauer, M.; Puzia, Thomas H.; Aguerri, J. A. L.; Farias, J. P.

doi:10.1093/mnras/sts395

Cited by 65 publications

(72 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…In prac- tice the total bound mass is found within 5-10 iterations. We find the snowballing method of measuring bound masses to be robust and trustworthy, and we have applied this technique successfully in several previous studies (Smith et al 2013a;Smith et al 2013b;Smith et al 2013c). …”

Section: Bound Fractionsmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…In this study we greatly improve on the harassment model of Smith et al (2010) and Smith et al (2013c). In the new harassment model the properties of the main cluster halo and harasser galaxy halos are dictated by a cosmological simulation of a cluster.…”

Section: New Harassment Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is difficult to conceive how such dwarfs can initially have very thin disks, then lose enough mass that their stars are stripped and their disks thickened, without first stripping away their globular cluster system (cf. Smith et al 2013c). Therefore it is likely that the types of galaxies we model formed with thick disks, or quickly evolved into thick disks through mechanisms other than heavy, harassment-induced tidal mass loss.…”

Section: The Stellar Distributionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Ryś et al (2014) claim that galaxies with higher dark-to-stellar mass ratio are preferentially found in the cluster outskirts, whereas central objects show ratios that are lower. Smith et al (2013c) also studied whether the GCS dynamics were too disturbed by tidal encounters for dynamical masses, derived from their motions, to be useful. We found that the GCSs very quickly relax after a tidal encounter, and that unbound GCs quickly separate from the stellar body of the early-type dwarf.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However in Smith et al (2010) and Smith et al (2013c) we considered only a limited range of orbits (e.g. circular near the cluster centre, or plunging from the cluster outskirts).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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The sensitivity of harassment to orbit: mass loss from early-type dwarfs in galaxy clusters

Smith

Sánchéz-Janssen

Beasley

et al. 2015

Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc.

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117

125

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We conduct a comprehensive numerical study of the orbital dependence of harassment on early-type dwarfs consisting of 168 different orbits within a realistic, Virgo-like cluster, varying in eccentricity and pericentre distance. We find harassment is only effective at stripping stars or truncating their stellar disks for orbits that enter deep into the cluster core. Comparing to the orbital distribution in cosmological simulations, we find that the majority of the orbits (more than three quarters) result in no stellar mass loss. We also study the effects on the radial profiles of the globular cluster systems of early-type dwarfs. We find these are significantly altered only if harassment is very strong. This suggests that perhaps most early-type dwarfs in clusters such as Virgo have not suffered any tidal stripping of stars or globular clusters due to harassment, as these components are safely embedded deep within their dark matter halo. We demonstrate that this result is actually consistent with an earlier study of harassment of dwarf galaxies, despite the apparent contradiction. Those few dwarf models that do suffer stellar stripping are found out to the virial radius of the cluster at redshift=0, which mixes them in with less strongly harassed galaxies. However when placed on phase-space diagrams, strongly harassed galaxies are found offset to lower velocities compared to weakly harassed galaxies. This remains true in a cosmological simulation, even when halos have a wide range of masses and concentrations. Thus phase-space diagrams may be a useful tool for determining the relative likelihood that galaxies have been strongly or weakly harassed.

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Section: Bound Fractionsmentioning

confidence: 92%

Section: New Harassment Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Stellar Distributionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However in Smith et al (2010) and Smith et al (2013c) we considered only a limited range of orbits (e.g. circular near the cluster centre, or plunging from the cluster outskirts).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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The sensitivity of harassment to orbit: mass loss from early-type dwarfs in galaxy clusters

Smith

Sánchéz-Janssen

Beasley

et al. 2015

Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc.

Self Cite

117

125

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Highlights of Commission 37 Science Results

Carraro¹,

Grijs²,

Elmegreen³

et al. 2015

Proc. IAU

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It is widely accepted that stars do not form in isolation but result from the fragmentation of molecular clouds, which in turn leads to star cluster formation. Over time, clusters dissolve or are destroyed by interactions with molecular clouds or tidal stripping, and their members become part of the general field population. Star clusters are thus among the basic building blocks of galaxies. In turn, star cluster populations, from young associations and open clusters to old globulars, are powerful tracers of the formation, assembly, and evolutionary history of their parent galaxies. Although their importance (e.g., in mapping out the Milky Way) had been recognised for decades, major progress in this area has only become possible in recent years, both for Galactic and extragalactic cluster populations. Star clusters are the observational foundation for stellar astrophysics and evolution, provide essential tracers of galactic structure, and are unique stellar dynamical environments. Star formation, stellar structure, stellar evolution, and stellar nucleosynthesis continue to benefit and improve tremendously from the study of these systems. Additionally, fundamental quantities such as the initial mass function can be successfully derived from modelling either the Hertzsprung-Russell diagrams or the integrated velocity structures of, respectively, resolved and unresolved clusters and cluster populations. Star cluster studies thus span the fields of Galactic and extragalactic astrophysics, while heavily affecting our detailed understanding of the process of star formation in dense environments. This report highlights science results of the last decade in the major fields covered by IAU Commission 37: Star clusters and associations. Instead of focusing on the business meeting - the out-going president presentation can be found here:http://www.sc.eso.org/gcarraro/splinter2015.pdf- this legacy report contains highlights of the most important scientific achievements in the Commission science area, compiled by 5 well expert members.

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How tidal erosion has shaped the relation between globular cluster specific frequency and galaxy luminosity

Mieske

Küpper

Brockamp

2014

A&A

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Aims.We quantify to what extent tidal erosion of globular clusters (GCs) has contributed to the observed U-shaped relation between GC specific frequencies S N and host galaxy luminosity M V . Methods. We used our Muesli code to calculate GC survival rates for typical early-type galaxy potentials covering a wide range of observed galaxy properties. We do this for isotropic and radially anisotropic GC velocity distributions. Results. We find that the calculated GC survival fraction, f s , depends linearly on the logarithm of the 3D mass density, ρ 3D , within the galaxy's half-light radius, with f s ∝ ρ −0.17 3D . For a given galaxy, survival rates are lower for radially anisotropic configurations than for the isotropic GC cases. We apply these relations to a literature sample of 219 early-type galaxies from Harris et al. (2013, ApJ, 772, 82) in the range M V = [−24.5 : −15.5] mag. The expected GC survival fraction ranges from 50% for the most massive galaxies with the largest radii to 10% for the most compact galaxies. We find that intermediate luminosity galaxies M V = [−20.5 : −17.5] mag have the strongest expected GC erosion. Within the literature sample considered, the predicted GC survival fraction therefore defines a U-shaped relation with M V , similar to the relation between specific frequency S N and M V . As a consequence, the U-shape of S N vs. M V gets erased almost entirely when correcting the S N values for the effect of GC erosion. Conclusions. Tidal erosion is an important contributor to the U-shaped relation between GC specific frequency and host galaxy luminosity. It must be taken into account when inferring primordial star cluster formation efficiencies from observations of GC systems in the nearby universe.

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The impact of galaxy harassment on the globular cluster systems of early-type cluster dwarf galaxies

Cited by 65 publications

References 61 publications

The sensitivity of harassment to orbit: mass loss from early-type dwarfs in galaxy clusters

The sensitivity of harassment to orbit: mass loss from early-type dwarfs in galaxy clusters

Highlights of Commission 37 Science Results

How tidal erosion has shaped the relation between globular cluster specific frequency and galaxy luminosity

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