The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society (천문학회보)
- Volume 35 Issue 2
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- Pages.29.1-29.1
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- 2010
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- 1226-2692(pISSN)
A New Perspective on the Blue Tilt Phenomenon of Extragalactic Globular Cluster Systems
- Lee, Sang-Yoon (Department of Astronomy, Yonsei University) ;
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Yoon, Suk-Jin
(Department of Astronomy, Yonsei University)
- Published : 2010.10.06
Abstract
Recent observations reveal that some early-type galaxies show a color-magnitude relation of blue globular clusters (GCs) in the color-magnitude diagrams, which is referred to as 'blue tilt'. This phenomenon is interpreted as a mass-metallicity relation -- metallicities of blue GCs increase with increasing mass, and thus provides a crucial clue to the chemical enrichment processes of GCs as a function of their mass. However, some galaxies show 'non-tilt' or even 'reverse blue tilt' on the blue GC sequence, and thus the origin of blue tilt still remains a puzzle. In this study, we put forward the theoretical explanation for the phenomenon and discuss its implications towards galaxy formation scenarios.
Keywords