Globular cluster systems as tracers of the evolutionary history in NGC 3258 and NGC 3268

Abstract

We present a new photometric study of NGC 3258 and NGC 3268 globular cluster systems (GCSs), using images in filters B, C, V, R, I and z', obtained from four different telescopes. The wide spatial coverage allows us to estimate the whole extension of both GCSs more precisely than in previous works, and new values for the richness of GC subpopulations. We find differences in the azimuthal distribution between blue (metal-poor) and red (metal-rich) globular clusters (GCs), and confirm that radial profiles flatten towards the centre of the galaxies. In both cases we detected a radial gradient in the colour peak of blue GCs which might be related to the construction of the GCSs. We analyse the similarities and differences in both GCSs, in the context of the possible evolutionary histories of the host galaxies. We also obtain photometric metallicities for a large number of GC candidates around NGC 3258, by applying multicolour-metallicity relations. These results confirm the bimodal metallicity distribution.