Stellar populations of Globular Clusters in the Elliptical galaxy NGC1407

dc.creatorCenarro, A. Javier
dc.creatorBeasley, Michael A.
dc.creatorStrader, Jay
dc.creatorBrodie, Jean P.
dc.creatorForbes, Duncan A.
dc.date2007-03-17
dc.date.accessioned2026-07-07T11:21:22Z
dc.date.available2026-07-07T11:21:22Z
dc.descriptionWe present high-quality, Keck spectroscopic data for a sample of 20 globular clusters (GCs) in the massive E0 galaxy NGC1407. A subset of twenty line-strength indices of the Lick/IDS system have been measured for both the GC system and the central integrated star-light of the galaxy. Ages, metallicities and [alpha/Fe] ratios have been derived using several different approaches. The majority GCs in NGC1407 studied are old, follow a tight metallicity sequence reaching values slightly above solar, and exhibit mean [alpha/Fe] ratios of ~ 0.3 dex. In addition, three GCs are formally derived to be young (~ 4 Gyr), but we argue that they are actually old GCs hosting blue horizontal branches. We report, for the first time, evidence for the existence of two chemically-distinct subpopulations of metal-rich (MR) GCs. We find some MR GCs exhibit significantly larger [Mg/Fe] and [C/Fe] ratios. Different star formation time-scales are proposed to explain the correlation between Mg and C abundances. We also find striking CN overabundances over the entire GC metallicity range. Interestingly, the behavior of C and N in metal-poor (MP) GCs clearly deviates from the one in MR GCs. In particular, for MR GCs, N increases dramatically while C essentially saturates. This may be interpreted as a consequence of the increasing importance of the CNO cycle with increasing metallicity.
dc.description53 pages, 11 figures, 5 tables. Accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journal
dc.identifierhttps://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0703472
dc.identifierhttp://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0703472
dc.identifierAstron.J.134:391-410,2007
dc.identifierdoi:10.1086/518504
dc.identifier.urihttp://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/194241
dc.subjectAstrophysics
dc.titleStellar populations of Globular Clusters in the Elliptical galaxy NGC1407
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