The Fornax 3D project: Globular clusters tracing kinematics and metallicities^⋆,⋆⋆

¹ European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild-Straße 2, 85748 Garching bei München, Germany
e-mail: kfahrion@eso.org
² Department of Astrophysics, University of Vienna, Türkenschanzstraße 17, 1180 Wien, Austria
³ Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Calle Via Láctea s/n, 38200 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
⁴ Depto. Astrofísica, Universidad de La Laguna, Calle Astrofísico Francisco Sánchez s/n, 38206 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
⁵ Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Königstuhl 17, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
⁶ Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, 38200 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
⁷ University of California Santa Cruz, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA
⁸ Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia “G. Galilei”, Università di Padova, Vicolo dell’Osservatorio 3, 35122 Padova, Italy
⁹ INAF–Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, Vicolo dell’Osservatorio 5, 35122 Padova, Italy
¹⁰ INAF-Astronomical Observatory of Capodimonte, Via Moiariello 16, 80131 Napoli, Italy
¹¹ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Macquarie University, North Ryde, NSW 2109, Australia
¹² Armagh Observatory and Planetarium, College Hill, Armagh BT61 9DG, UK
¹³ Centre for Astrophysics Research, University of Hertfordshire, College Lane, Hatfield AL10 9AB, UK
¹⁴ Sterrenkundig Observatorium, Universiteit Gent, Krijgslaan 281, 9000 Gent, Belgium
¹⁵ Sterrewacht Leiden, Leiden University, Postbus 9513, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands
¹⁶ Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik, Gießenbachstraße 1, 85748 Garching bei München, Germany
¹⁷ Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 80 Nandan Road, Shanghai 200030, PR China

Received: 7 February 2020
Accepted: 25 March 2020

Abstract

Globular clusters (GCs) are found ubiquitously in massive galaxies and due to their old ages, they are regarded as fossil records of galaxy evolution. Spectroscopic studies of GC systems are often limited to the outskirts of galaxies, where GCs stand out against the galaxy background and serve as bright tracers of galaxy assembly. In this work, we use the capabilities of the Multi Unit Explorer Spectrograph (MUSE) to extract a spectroscopic sample of 722 GCs in the inner regions (≲3 R_eff) of 32 galaxies in the Fornax cluster. These galaxies were observed as part of the Fornax 3D project, a MUSE survey that targets early and late-type galaxies within the virial radius of Fornax. After accounting for the galaxy background in the GC spectra, we extracted line-of-sight velocities and determined metallicities of a sub-sample of 238 GCs. We found signatures of rotation within GC systems, and comparing the GC kinematics and that of the stellar body shows that the GCs trace the spheroid of the galaxies. While the red GCs prove to closely follow the metallicity profile of the host galaxy, the blue GCs show a large spread of metallicities but they are generally more metal-poor than the host.