Study of NGC 5128 Globular Clusters Under Multivariate Statistical Paradigm

TL;DR

This study applies a multivariate statistical approach to classify globular clusters in NGC 5128, revealing three distinct groups with different origins, using advanced PCA and mixture modeling techniques.

Contribution

It introduces a modified PCA technique accounting for outliers and applies a mixture model for objective classification of globular clusters.

Findings

Identified three coherent globular cluster groups in NGC 5128.

Proposed different origins for each cluster group based on classification.

Demonstrated improved classification accuracy over K-means clustering.

Abstract

An objective classification of the globular clusters of NGC 5128 has been carried out by using a model-based approach of cluster analysis. The set of observable parameters includes structural parameters, spectroscopically determined Lick indices and radial velocities from the literature. The optimum set of parameters for this type of analysis is selected through a modified technique of Principal Component Analysis, which differs from the classical one in the sense that it takes into consideration the effects of outliers present in the data. Then a mixture model based approach has been used to classify the globular clusters into groups. The efficiency of the techniques used is tested through the comparison of the misclassification probabilities with those obtained using the K-means clustering technique. On the basis of the above classification scheme three coherent groups of globular clusters have been found. We propose that the clusters of one group originated in the original cluster formation event that coincided with the formation of the elliptical galaxy, and that the clusters of the two other groups are of external origin, from tidally stripped dwarf galaxies on random orbits around NGC 5128 for one group, and from an accreted spiral galaxy for the other.