Further Definition of the Mass-Metallicity Relation in Globular Cluster Systems Around Brightest Cluster Galaxies Robert Cockcroft Department of Physics and Astronomy, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, L8S 4M1, Canada
[email protected] William E. Harris Department of Physics and Astronomy, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, L8S 4M1, Canada
[email protected] Elizabeth M. H. Wehner Utrecht University, PO Box 80125, 3508 TC Utrecht, The Netherlands
[email protected] Bradley C. Whitmore Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore MD 21218
[email protected] and Barry Rothberg arXiv:0906.2008v1 [astro-ph.CO] 10 Jun 2009 Naval Research Laboratory, Code 7211, 4555 Overlook Ave SW, Washington D.C. 20375
[email protected] ABSTRACT We combine the globular cluster data for fifteen Brightest Cluster Galaxies and use this material to trace the mass-metallicity relations (MMR) in their glob- ular cluster systems (GCSs). This work extends previous studies which correlate the properties of the MMR with those of the host galaxy. Our combined data sets –2– show a mean trend for the metal-poor (MP) subpopulation which corresponds to a scaling of heavy-element abundance with cluster mass Z ∼ M0.30±0.05. No trend is seen for the metal-rich (MR) subpopulation which has a scaling relation that is consistent with zero. We also find that the scaling exponent is independent of the GCS specific frequency and host galaxy luminosity, except perhaps for dwarf galaxies. We present new photometry in (g’,i’) obtained with Gemini/GMOS for the globular cluster populations around the southern giant ellipticals NGC 5193 and IC 4329.