Revisiting the globular clusters of NGC1052-DF2

Abstract

The ultra-diffuse galaxy (UDG) NGC1052-DF2 has captured the interest of astronomers ever since the low velocity dispersion measured from ten globular clusters (GCs) suggested a low dark matter fraction. Also, its GC system was found to be unusually bright, with a GC luminosity function peak at least one magnitude brighter than expected for a galaxy at a distance of 20 Mpc. In this work we present an updated view of the GC system of NGC1052-DF2. We analysed archival MUSE data of NGC1052-DF2 to confirm the membership of four additional GCs based on their radial velocities, thereby raising the number of spectroscopically confirmed GCs to 16. We measured the ages and metallicities of 11 individual GCs, finding them to be old ($> 9$ Gyr) and with a range of metallicities from [M/H] = $-0.7$ to $-1.8$ dex. The majority of GCs are found to be more metal-poor than the host galaxy, with some metal-rich GCs sharing the metallicity of the host ([M/H] = $-$1.09$^{+0.09}_{-0.07}$ dex). The host galaxy shows a flat age and metallicity gradient out to 1 $R_\text{e}$. Using a distance measurement based on the internal GC velocity dispersions ($D = 16.2$ Mpc), we derived photometric GC masses and find that the peak of the GC mass function compares well with that of the Milky Way. From updated GC velocities, we estimated the GC system velocity dispersion of NGC1052-DF2 with a simple kinematic model and find $σ_\text{GCS} = 14.86^{+3.89}_{-2.83}$ km s$^{-1}$. However, this value is reduced to $σ_\text{GCS} = 8.63^{+2.88}_{-2.14}$ km s$^{-1}$ when the GC that has the highest relative velocity based on a low S/N spectrum is considered an interloper. We discuss the possible origin of NGC1502-DF2, taking the lower distance, spread in GC metallicities, flat stellar population profiles, and dynamical mass estimate into consideration.