APOGEE physical properties of globular cluster tidal tails
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: A recent model prediction claimed that there is a correlation between the formation scenarios of globular clusters (i.e., whether they formed in situ or in dark matter halos that were accreted into the Milky Way) and some properties of their tidal tails, particularly their widths ( w ), and their dispersions in the z-component of the angular momentum (σ L Z ) and in the line-of-sight (σ V LOS ) and tangential (σ V Tan ) velocities. I exploited the APOGEE DR17 database and selected highly confident tidal tail members of 17 Milky Way globular clusters, for which the above four properties were computed for the first time. From all the possible paired property combinations, I found that σ V Los and σ V Tan resulted as highly correlated, nearly to the identity relationship. This observation-based correlation was in overall very good agreement with that arising from the aforementioned predictions. Additionally, when the four analyzed properties are linked to the accretion groups of the Milky Way with which the globular clusters are meant to be associated, I found kinematically cold and hot tidal tails pertaining to globular clusters distributed in all the considered accretion groups. This outcome could be evidence that globular clusters form in galaxies within a wide variety of dark matter halos, with different masses and profiles.
Source: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Author: A. E. Piatti
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $1,865
OpenAlex ID: W4417528144