Abstract
ABSTRACT The chemical and dynamical histories of halo stars (HS) and globular clusters (GC) in elliptical galaxies are discussed on the basis of recent observations of the GC system M87 (Strom et al., 1981). The production of heavy elements by a population of GCs with various mass functions is estimated as a function of time by modeling the evolution of a 'typical' GC over 1.2 x 10 to the 10th years and applying the approximate number of GCs in M87 and the mass-function/L ratio of the cluster and the halo. The calculations show that if all the heavy elements generated in the GC are distributed into the HS population, the observed M87 outer-halo metallicity Z = 0.01 solar Z can be explained using 'sensible' values for the limits and slope of the mass function. This finding is considered supportive of the GC-formation mechanism proposed by Gunn (1980); other implications are explored in detail.
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