Nuclear star clusters in 228 spiral galaxies in the HST/WFPC2 archive: catalogue and comparison to other stellar systems

TL;DR

This paper provides a comprehensive catalogue of nuclear star clusters in 228 nearby spiral galaxies, analyzing their properties and comparing them to other stellar systems to understand their origins and evolution.

Contribution

It offers a homogeneous analysis of NSCs using HST/WFPC2 data, revealing their sizes, luminosities, and potential links to UCDs and galaxy nuclei, and discusses their complex morphologies.

Findings

Most NSCs have sizes similar to globular clusters.

Largest NSCs occupy the UCD and galaxy nucleus regime.

Evidence suggests NSC sizes may be smaller in bluer filters.

Abstract

We present a catalogue of photometric and structural properties of 228 nuclear star clusters (NSCs) in nearby late-type disk galaxies. These new measurements are derived from a homogeneous analysis of all suitable WFPC2 images in the $HST$ archive. The luminosity and size of each NSC is derived from an iterative PSF-fitting technique, which adapts the fitting area to the effective radius ($r_{\rm eff}$) of the NSC, and uses a WFPC2-specific PSF model tailored to the position of each NSC on the detector. The luminosities of NSCs are $\leq\!10^8L_{\rm V,\odot}$, and their integrated optical colours suggest a wide spread in age. We confirm that most NSCs have sizes similar to Globular Clusters (GCs), but find that the largest and brightest NSCs occupy the regime between Ultra Compact Dwarf (UCD) and the nuclei of early-type galaxies in the size-luminosity plane. The overlap in size, mass, and colour between the different incarnations of compact stellar systems provides a support for the notion that at least some UCDs and the most massive Galactic GCs, may be remnant nuclei of disrupted disk galaxies. We find tentative evidence for the NSCs' $r_{\rm eff}$ to be smaller when measured in bluer filters, and discuss possible implications of this result. We also highlight a few examples of complex nuclear morphologies, including double nuclei, extended stellar structures, and nuclear $F606W$ excess from either recent (circum-)nuclear star formation and/or a weak AGN. Such examples may serve as case studies for ongoing NSC evolution via the two main suggested mechanisms, namely cluster merging and $in\ situ$ star formation.