A supragalactic conundrum: the globular clusters colour pattern in Virgo galaxies

Abstract

The presence of systematic modulations in the colour distributions in composite samples of globular clusters (GCs) associated with galaxies in the Virgo and Fornax clusters has been reported in a previous work. In this paper, we focus on the 27 brightest galaxies in Virgo, and in particular on NGC 4486, the dominant system in terms of GC population. The new analysis includes ≈ 7600 cluster candidates brighter than g = 24.5 (or T1 ≈ 23.70). The results indicate the presence of the characteristic Virgo pattern in these galaxies and that this pattern is detectable over a galactocentric range from 3 to 30 kpc in NGC 4486. This finding gives more support to the idea that the pattern has been the result of an external, still not identified phenomenon, capable of synchronizing the cluster formation in a kind of viral process, and on supragalactic scales (also having, presumably, an impact on the overall star formation history in the entire Virgo cluster).