Calcium and Color: Measurements of Bimodality in Globular Cluster Metallicities

Calcium and Color: Measurements of Bimodality in Globular Cluster Metallicities

In this paper, the SLUGGS team explores an alternate way to determine the metallicity of a globular cluster based on the calcium triplet rather than color. Previous studies have shown what appear to be two peaks in the metallicity of the population of globular clusters surrounding early-type galaxies – a bimodal distribution – but some astronomers have pointed out that the way we measure metallicity in globular clusters can make a unimodal distribution in metallicity appear as a bimodal one. The SLUGGS team recalibrates the calcium triplet relation and surveys 903 clusters around 11 galaxies, and finds a similar bimodal distribution, implying that most massive galaxies undergo at least two star formation episodes.