Over 200 globular clusters in the Milky Way and still none with super-Solar metallicity

Abstract

Context. A large number of globular clusters in the Milky Way have been studied in recent years, especially in hidden regions such as those of the Galactic bulge. Aims. The main goal of this work is to understand what we can learn if we include these new objects into the Milky Way globular cluster (GC) system that we know today. We compiled a catalog of 37 recently discovered globular clusters. Most of them are located in the Galactic bulge, but we also included some of the GCs for comparison. Methods. We used a range of distributions for investigating the Galactic GC system based on the metallicity, luminosity function, and age. We considered three samples. We first treated the new GC sample separately from the known and well characterized GCs. Consequently, we merged these two samples, thereby upgrading the Milky Way GC system. Furthermore, we performed a comparison between our clusters sample and the field star population. Results. We found a double-peaked distribution for the luminosity function, which shows an elongated faint end tail. Considering the “merged” sample, the luminosity function peaks at MVup = −7.00 ± 1.3 mag and at MVup = −4.1 ± 0.48 mag. The metallicity distributions also display a bimodality trend. In this case, we compare our new sample compilation with previously published ones, finding that the distributions are in good general agreement. We also constructed the metallicity distribution for the field star sample and, by comparing it with that of the GCs, we learned that a high percentage of field stars show [Fe/H] > 0; whereas we did not detect any GCs in the same metallicity range. To understand this inconsistency, we constructed the age–metallicity diagram for both samples, noting that the old and metal-poor population (age ≥ 8 Gyr and [Fe/H] ≤ −1.0) is represented by Gcs, while the young and metal-rich population (age < 8 Gyr and [Fe/H] > −1.0) corresponds to field stars. Conclusions. From the analysis of the GC luminosity function and metallicity distribution, we can conclude that many GCs, probably those that are very faint, have survived strong dynamical processes that are typical of the bulge regions. Moreover, we cannot exclude the possibility that some of them have been accreted during past merging events, especially the metal-poor component, whereas the metal-rich population may be related to the formation of the bulge and/or disk. Finally, the difference that we notice between the cluster and field star samples should be explored in the context of the evolutionary differences among these two stellar populations.