Tidal tails of Milky Way globular clusters

A.E. PIATTI, J.A. CARBALLO-BELLO

ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS

EDP SCIENCES S A

Lugar: Paris; Año: 2020 vol. 637 p. 2 - 7

0004-6361

We report on the search for overall kinematical or structural conditions that have allowed some Milky Way globular clusters topresently develop tidal tails. For this purpose, we build a comprehensive catalogue of globular clusters with studies focused on theiroutermost regions and classified them in three categories: those with observed tidal tails, those with extra-tidal features dierent fromtidal tails and those without any signature of extended stellar density profiles. When exploring dierent kinematical and structuralparameter spaces, we found that globular clusters - irrespective from the presence of tidal tails, or any other kind of extra-tidal featuresor the absence of them - behave similarly. In general, globular clusters whose orbits are relatively more eccentric and very inclinedrespect to the Milky Way plane have undergone a larger amount of mass-loss by tidal disruption. The latter has also accelerated theinternal dynamics toward a comparatively more advanced stage of evolution. These outcomes show that it is not straightforward tofind any particular set of parameter space and dynamical conditions that can definitely predict tidal tails along globular clusters in theMilky Way.