A Survey of Globular Cluster Systems of Massive Compact Elliptical Galaxies in the Local Universe

Massive Compact Elliptical Galaxies (MCEGs) found in the local universe are as massive as normal galaxies but extremely compact (M∗ > 1011 Msun, Reff < 1.5 kpc). They are considered to be the relics of red nugget galaxies found at high redshift. They are not likely to have undergone many mergers, keeping their original mass and size. Moreover, it is expected that they host a dominant population of red (metal-rich) globular clusters rather than blue (metal-poor) ones. Indeed, Beasley et al. (2018) found that the color distribution of the cluster system of NGC 1277 is unimodal, showing only a red population. However, NGC 1277 is the only case whose cluster system was studied among MCEGs. In this study, we investigate globular cluster systems of 14 nearby MCEGs with a homogeneous data set of HST/WFC3 F814W/F160W archive images. We detect tens to hundreds of globular clusters in each galaxy and examine their color distributions. Surprisingly, the fractions of red globular clusters are similar to those of normal galaxies, and are much lower than that of NGC 1277. We additionally obtain Gemini/GMOS-N g'r'i' images of PGC 70520, one of the 14 nearby MCEGs, to detect more globular clusters from deeper and wider images. We will discuss the results from the Gemini data combined with the results from the HST data in relation with the formation of MCEGs.