Constraints on the Formation History of the Elliptical Galaxy NGC 3923 from the Colors of Its Globular Clusters

Abstract

We present a study of the colors of globular clusters associated with the elliptical galaxy NGC 3923. Our final sample consists of Washington system C and T_1 photometry for 143 globular cluster candidates with an expected contamination of no more than 10%. We find that the color distribution of the NGC 3923 globular cluster system (GCS) is broad and appears to have at least two peaks. A mixture modeling analysis of the color distribution indicates that a two component model is favored over a single component one at a high level of confidence (>99%). This evidence for more than one population in the GCS of NGC 3923 is similar to that previously noted for the four other elliptical galaxies for which similar data have been published. Furthermore, we find that the NGC 3923 GCS is redder than the GCSs of previously studied elliptical galaxies of similar luminosity. The median metallicity inferred from our (C-T_1)_0 colors is [Fe/H]_{med} = -0.56, with an uncertainty of 0.14 dex arising from all sources of uncertainty in the mean color. This is more metal rich than the median metallicity found for the GCS of M87 using the same method, [Fe/H]_{med} = -0.94. Since M87 is more luminous than NGC 3923, this result points to significant scatter about any trend of higher GCS metallicity with increasing galaxy luminosity. We also show that there is a color gradient in the NGC 3923 GCS corresponding to about -0.5 dex in Delta[Fe/H]Δ(log r). We conclude that the shape of the color distribution of individual GCSs and the variation in mean color among the GCSs of ellipticals are difficult to understand if elliptical galaxies are formed in a single protogalactic