J-PLUS: a catalogue of globular cluster candidates around the M 81/M 82/NGC 3077 triplet of galaxies. Issue 1 (3rd September 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Chies-Santos, Ana L; de Souza, Rafael S; Caso, Juan P; Ennis, Ana I; de Souza, Camila P E; Barbosa, Renan S; Chen, Peng; Javier Cenarro, A; Ederoclite, Alessandro; Cristóbal-Hornillos, David; Hernández-Monteagudo, Carlos; López-Sanjuan, Carlos; Marín-Franch, Antonio; Moles, Mariano; Varela, Jesús; Vázquez Ramió, Héctor; Dupke, Renato; Sodré, Laerte; Angulo, Raul E
• Is Part Of: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Volume 516:Issue 1(2022)
• Page Start: 1320
• Page End: 1338
• Publication Date: 2022-09-03
• Subjects: methods: statistical -- galaxies: groups: individual -- galaxies: star clusters: general -- galaxies: star clusters: individual -- galaxies: stellar content; Astronomy -- Periodicals; Periodicals; 520.5
• DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stac2002
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0035-8711

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Globular clusters (GCs) are proxies of the formation assemblies of their host galaxies. However, few studies exist targeting GC systems of spiral galaxies up to several effective radii. Through 12-band Javalambre Photometric Local Universe Survey (J-PLUS) imaging, we study the point sources around the M 81/M 82/NGC 3077 triplet in search of new GC candidates. We develop a tailored classification scheme to search for GC candidates based on their similarity to known GCs via a principal component analysis projection. Our method accounts for missing data and photometric errors. We report 642 new GC candidates in a region of 3.5 deg 2 around the triplet, ranked according to their Gaia astrometric proper motions when available. We find tantalizing evidence for an overdensity of GC candidate sources forming a bridge connecting M 81 and M 82. Finally, the spatial distribution of the GC candidates ( g − i ) colours is consistent with halo/intra-cluster GCs, i.e. it gets bluer as they get further from the closest galaxy in the field. We further employ a regression-tree-based model to estimate the metallicity distribution of the GC candidates based on their J-PLUS bands. The metallicity distribution of the sample candidates is broad and displays a bump towards the metal-rich end. Our list increases the population of GC candidates around the triplet by threefold, stresses the usefulness of multiband surveys in finding these objects, and provides a testbed for further studies analysing their spatial distribution around nearby (spirals) galaxies.