Detecting metal-rich intermediate-age Globular Clusters in NGC 4570 using K-band photometry

TL;DR

This study combines optical and near-infrared photometry with evolutionary models to identify a significant population of intermediate-age, metal-rich globular clusters in NGC 4570, shedding light on its formation history.

Contribution

It introduces a method using combined optical and K-band photometry with models to break the age-metallicity degeneracy in globular clusters.

Findings

Discovery of a large population of intermediate-age (~1-3 Gyr) globular clusters.

Identification of these clusters as metal-rich (~solar metallicity).

Enhanced understanding of the galaxy's formation history.

Abstract

Globular Cluster Systems (GCSs) of most early-type galaxies feature two peaks in their optical colour distributions. Blue-peak GCs are believed to be old and metal-poor, whereas the ages, metallicities, and the origin of the red-peak GCs are still being debated. We obtained deep K-band photometry and combined it with HST observations in g and z to yield a full SED from optical to near-infrared. This now allows us to break the age-metallicity degeneracy. We used our evolutionary synthesis models GALEV for star clusters to compute a large grid of models with different metallicities and a wide range of ages. Comparing these models to our observations revealed a large population of intermediate-age (1-3 Gyr) and metalrich (~ solar metallicity) globular clusters, that will give us further insights into the formation history of this galaxy.