Invited Review: Extragalactic Globular Clusters: tracers of galaxy evolution

L. P. BASSINO

Bucarest, Rumania

Conferencia; Exploring the Solar System and the Universe; 2008

Astronomical Institute of the Romanian Academy

The study of globular cluster systems provides clues about different topics related to galaxy evolution. In the past years we have been investigating the globular cluster systems of galaxies in the Fornax and Antlia clusters, particularly those associated to the cluster-dominant galaxies. We present here the main results related to these systems. All of them have bimodal color distributions, even those around low-luminosity galaxies, that correspond to the metal-poor (“blue”) and metal-rich (“red”) globular cluster subpopulations. The radial and azimuthal projected areal distributions of the globular clusters are also analyzed. Total globular cluster populations are estimated through the luminosity functions. We stress on the properties of the globular cluster systems that allow us to trace possible interaction processes between the galaxies, like tidal stripping of globular clusters.    The observational material consists of CCD images obtained with the wide-field MOSAIC Imager of the CTIO 4-m telescope (La Serena, Chile), and the FORS1 camera at the VLT “Antu” 8-m telescope (Cerro Paranal, Chile).