# Spectroscopy of Globular Cluster Candidates in the Sculptor Group Galaxies NGC 253 and NGC 55

## 1 Introduction

The search for globular clusters in external galaxies has progressed to the point where globular cluster systems have now been studied in over 100 galaxies (e.g. Harris 1999). In most cases these globular cluster systems are identified as a statistical excess of images above background, clustered around the parent galaxy. If the known globular clusters in the Galaxy are assumed to be representative of old cluster populations in external galaxies, then only in the nearest galaxies are the brightest globular clusters expected to be resolved in ground–based images (see Harris et al. 1984). The Sculptor group of galaxies forms a loose physical association of about 15 members (de Vaucouleurs 1959, 1978). At a distance of 2.5 Mpc \[Graham 1982\] it is generally believed to be the nearest aggregate of galaxies to our own Local Group \[de Vaucouleurs 1975\]. Despite its relative proximity, very little is known of the globular cluster systems surrounding the major galaxies in the Sculptor group (NGC 45, 55, 247, 253, 300 and 7793). Da Costa & Graham (1982) obtained spectroscopy of three resolved cluster candidates in the field of NGC 55, an SB(s)m galaxy with $`M_B=19.7`$ \[de Vaucouleurs et al. 1991\], and found all three to have velocities which agreed with that of NGC 55 itself. A visual search for globular cluster candidates around NGC 55 and NGC 253 has been made by Liller & Alcaino (1983a,b) using plates from the ESO 3.6 m telescope. These authors found a total of 114 slightly diffuse objects with the $`BV`$ colours, magnitudes and sizes appropriate to those of a globular cluster population similar to that in the Galaxy. A more quantitative selection of candidates was later derived by Blecha (1986) using profile analysis of images from the Danish 1.5 m telescope.

The true nature of these globular cluster candidates, however, can only be established via spectroscopy to determine accurate radial velocities. Since these objects are marginally resolved, there is not the same level of confusion with Galactic stars as is the case with more distant cluster systems. Moreover, because the parent galaxies have low systemic velocities ($`V_{\mathrm{N55}}`$=129 kms<sup>-1</sup>; $`V_{\mathrm{N253}}`$ = 245 kms<sup>-1</sup>) \[Da Costa et al. 1991\], there is little uncertainty in identifying background galaxies (see $`\mathrm{\S }4`$). In this paper we present a spectroscopic survey of the Liller & Alcaino (1983a,b) and Blecha (1986) samples. The plan of the paper is as follows: $`\mathrm{\S }2`$ contains the observations and data reduction, with the radial velocity analysis presented in $`\mathrm{\S }3`$. In $`\mathrm{\S }4`$ we discuss the spectroscopically confirmed clusters and use this information together with COSMOS digitised plate scans to define a new sample of globular cluster candidates in $`\mathrm{\S }5`$. Conclusions are summarized in $`\mathrm{\S }6`$.

## 2 Observations and Data Reduction

### 2.1 Sample Selection

The sample was selected from the list of globular clusters candidates published by Liller & Alcaino (1983a) for NGC 55, and from Liller & Alcaino (1983b) and Blecha (1986) for NGC 253. The candidates were taken within the radial limits $`0<R<20`$ arcmin from the centres of each galaxy and magnitude limits $`18<B<20.5`$. For completeness, our candidates included twenty extra objects, six labelled ’bright’ and fourteen labelled ’blue’ in the Liller & Alcaino (1983a,b) papers. Accurate astrometric positions ($`\pm `$ 0.3 arcsec) for each target were obtained using a PDS measuring machine and reference stars from the Perth70 catalogue. At this stage any obvious galaxies (usually low surface brightness objects showing spiral structure) were expunged from the lists. The final list of candidates contained 57 objects in NGC 55 and 58 in NGC 253.

### 2.2 Observations

The observations were obtained with the 3.9 m Anglo–Australian Telescope (AAT) and the AUTOFIB fibre positioner \[Parry & Sharples 1988\] to obtain intermediate dispersion spectra of up to 64 objects within a 40 arcminute diameter field. Several fibres were used to monitor the sky background spectrum and the faint background light from the parent galaxy halo. Using a 600 lines mm<sup>-1</sup> grating in first order with the RGO spectrograph, we obtained spectra covering the range 3850–5700 Å at a resolution of 4 Å using the Image Photon Counting System (IPCS) as the detector. For each galaxy $`5\times 3000`$ second exposures were interspersed with 200 second exposures of a Cu–Ar–He calibration lamp and 300 second exposures of blank sky regions. Most of the observations were obtained in rather poor seeing conditions (2–3 arcsec) so the final spectra have S/N ratios typically in the range 4–20.

### 2.3 Data Reduction

The data have been primarily reduced using the FIGARO data reduction package with standard techniques to extract the individual spectra from the data frame and wavelength calibrate them using the exposures of the Cu–Ar–He hollow cathode lamp. The rms residuals of the wavelength calibration were typically 0.2 Å. Sky subtraction was based on the dedicated sky fibres in each frame, with the fibre–to–fibre transmission variations and vignetting along the spectrograph slit being removed using the blank sky exposures. In addition, we have corrected for the fibre–to–fibre spectral response (most of which is introduced when the spectra are extracted) using exposures of the twilight sky spectrum whose shape is assumed to be constant across the field. During the run, exposures were obtained of several bright radial velocity standards by offsetting the stars into individual fibres. The spectra consisted of 925 channels at 2 Å pixel<sup>-1</sup> and prior to cross–correlation analysis were rebinned onto a logarithmic wavelength scale with a velocity step of 127 kms<sup>-1</sup> per bin.

Table 1 summarizes the template objects observed for the two galaxies.

## 3 Radial Velocities

Radial velocities were determined from the spectra through two methods. For obvious emission–line objects, identified lines were fitted with a gaussian and the position of the peak measured. The final velocity is the mean of these measurements for different lines, with the uncertainty being the rms between measurements. For spectra with no obvious emission lines, radial velocities were determined by the cross–correlation of object spectrum against template \[Tonry & Davis 1979\] with the task fxcor in iraf. Emission lines more than 4 $`\sigma `$ from the psuedo–continuum (determined by fitting a polynomial to the spectra) where either interpolated across by hand or removed with the lineclean task in iraf. Fig. 1 shows three extracted spectra of globular cluster candidates in NGC 253.

It was required that the cross–correlations have normalised peak heights $`>`$ 0.1; below this threshold it was found that returned velocities were unreliable and should therefore be discarded. Furthermore it was specified that each spectrum should have at least two reliable cross–correlations against different templates. The final velocities are taken to be the mean velocity weighted by the cross–correlation peak height of each template, and have been corrected to heliocentric values. The uncertainties given are the rms between velocities derived from these different templates. Tables 2 and 3 show the final velocities obtained from the candidate cluster spectra for the two galaxies. There is no real information as to the nature of external uncertainties; none of these objects have been previously observed spectroscopically and since each field was observed solely in one setup, there are no overlaps between objects for comparison.

## 4 Identification of Globular Clusters

All our globular cluster candidates have been classified as extended objects on the basis of visual inspection of photographic plates (Liller & Alcaino 1983a,b) or profile analysis (Blecha 1986). The main source of contamination in the samples should therefore be from background galaxies. The systemic velocity of the Sculptor group is low, ($`V_{\mathrm{N55}}=129`$ kms<sup>-1</sup>; $`V_{\mathrm{N253}}=245`$ kms<sup>-1</sup>), so we take a velocity cut at $`v_\mathrm{h}=`$ 1000 kms<sup>-1</sup>, with all objects above this threshold being assumed to be background galaxies. A large number of the spectra exhibited emission lines of \[O ii\], \[O iii\], H$`\beta `$ or H$`\gamma `$ and except for candidate #64 in NGC 253 (see below), these objects all had $`v_\mathrm{h}>`$ 1000 kms<sup>-1</sup>. Removing background galaxies in such a manner should effectively leave a sample consisting of objects which are either residual contaminating foreground Galactic stars, or globular clusters within the Sculptor group. For old clusters in the Milky Way, Armandroff (1989) gives a velocity dispersion of $`\sigma `$ = 100 kms<sup>-1</sup>. Assuming that mass scales with $`\sigma ^2`$ and the mass–to–light ratios of the Milky Way and the two Sculptor spirals are comparable, then the expected velocity dispersion for the halo clusters in NGC 55 and NGC 253 will be $``$ 70 kms<sup>-1</sup>. The velocity ranges for possible clusters ( $`\pm `$$`\sigma `$ from the mean velocity) are then taken to be -80 $`V_{\mathrm{N55}}`$ 340 kms<sup>-1</sup> and 35 $`V_{\mathrm{N253}}`$ 455 kms<sup>-1</sup> for NGC 55 and NGC 253 respectively. Since at some level there will be an overlap between high velocity foreground stars and globular clusters in the Sculptor group, distinguishing between these two cases relies on identifying true clusters as marginally extended objects.

Fifteen NGC 253 cluster candidates fall within the velocity range expected for globular clusters, and appear marginally resolved on images from the Digitized Sky Survey (see Lasker & Mclean 1994). Object #64 has $`v_\mathrm{h}=`$ 404 $`\pm `$ 10 kms<sup>-1</sup>, but shows emission lines of \[O iii\], H$`\beta `$ and H$`\gamma `$ and has therefore been excluded from further consideration. Two of the candidates, #25 and #27, have radial velocities which fall just short of the velocity cut. The appearance of their images and their COSMOS image parameters (see §5) point towards a Galactic origin; on this basis they have been identified as foreground stars. Objects #40 and #44 both have large radial velocities in comparison to the mean systemic velocity of NGC 253, with $`v_\mathrm{h}=`$ 401 $`\pm `$ 117 kms<sup>-1</sup> and $`v_\mathrm{h}=`$ 447 $`\pm `$ 102 kms<sup>-1</sup> respectively. However, the large errors reflect the significant degree of scatter between templates where the cross–correlations were close to the normalised peak height cut–off at 0.1 and so they have been left in the sample. Table 4 lists those objects in NGC 253 that are identified as globular clusters. The sample has mean velocity $`\overline{v_\mathrm{h}}=`$ 297 kms<sup>-1</sup> with velocity dispersion, $`\sigma =`$ 74 kms<sup>-1</sup>. Omitting objects #40 and #44 yields $`\overline{v_\mathrm{h}}=`$ 276 kms<sup>-1</sup> and $`\sigma =`$ 55 kms<sup>-1</sup>, this is entirely consistent with values expected for the NGC 253 globular cluster system. Twelve of the clusters fall into the ’classical’ colour region for globular clusters, with 0.5 $`<BV<`$ 1.25. Cluster #7 (B1) is very blue, with $`BV=`$ 0.19. Its spectrum shows strong Balmer absorption lines, and may be analogous to the blue clusters seen in the Magellanic Clouds (e.g. Bica, Dottori, & Pastoriza 1986). Cluster #41 has $`BV=`$ 1.8, and is probably highly reddened due to its proximity to the disk of NGC 253 (see Blecha 1986).

In the NGC 55 sample, there are six objects that are not galaxies and fall within the velocity cut for globular clusters. However, all but one of these appear effectively point–like and lie on the stellar locus of the COSMOS plate scans (see §5). Object #53 has $`v_\mathrm{h}=`$ 246 $`\pm `$ 58 kms<sup>-1</sup> and lies within 2 $`\sigma `$ of the galaxies’ systemic velocity. Images of this object show some elongation, but an isophotal plot indicates a round, marginally extended source blended with another object.<sup>5</sup><sup>5</sup>5 In their catalogue, Liller & Alcaino \[Liller & Alcaino 1983a\] indicate that object #53 (LA43) is separated by 5$`\stackrel{}{.}`$9 from a fainter companion. On the basis of this, it has been classified as a likely globular cluster. At $`B=17.1(BV=0.76)`$, cluster #53 is bright but not unreasonably so. Adopting a distance modulus to NGC 55 of $`(mM)_o=`$ 26.5 gives the cluster $`M_V`$ $`=`$ -10.2, the same as the most luminous Galactic globular cluster $`\omega `$ Cen \[Harris 1996\].

Object #11 has been identified as a broad absorption line (BAL) QSO with redshift $`z`$2.7. Its spectrum is shown in Fig. 2. Emission in N v and C iv is shown, though absorption shortward of N v is so strong that no Ly$`\alpha `$ emission is observed. This type of spectrum is occasionally seen in ’peculiar’ BAL QSOs (e.g. Korista et al. 1995).

Fig. 3 shows the spatial distribution of the 14 objects identified as globular clusters in NGC 253. The field is aproximately 40 arcminutes on a side. The distribution of cluster velocities is interesting; the clusters predominantly recede with respect to the galaxy rest–frame in the SW part of the galaxy and approach in the NE. This is consistent with the direction of rotation of the galaxy, as measured from H$`\alpha `$ rotation curves \[Pence 1980\]. However, due to the small numbers of clusters the level of rotation is not statistically significant.

## 5 Definition of a New Sample of Globular Clusters

### 5.1 COSMOS plate scans

The cluster samples selected by Liller & Alcaino (1983a,b) are based on visual inspection of photographic plates. Clearly such selection is prone to subjective errors and saturation effects. A more quantitative approach was taken by Blecha (1986) using electronographic plates, but as can be seen from Table 2, even this sample is contaminated by both foreground stars and background galaxies. In this section we explore the use of image parameters measured by the COSMOS measuring machine (Beard, MacGillivray & Thanisch 1990) to identify new samples of globular clusters around NGC 253 and NGC 55.

AAT prime focus plates of the two Sculptor group galaxies were raster scanned with the COSMOS facility using the mapping mode, with a step size of 16 $`\mu `$m and a 16 $`\mu `$m spot size. The image area threshold was set to 10 pixels (plate scale 15.3 arcsec mm<sup>-1</sup>), with all pixels above this threshold being grouped into discrete objects. Details of the plates are listed in Table 5.

The COSMOS image analysis software \[Stobie 1982\] was then run on each digitized frame to provide a list of objects with information on position, magnitude, orientation, axial ratio (major and minor axis lengths) and area. The COSMOS instrumental magnitudes were calibrated using the photoelectric sequences of Hanes & Grieve (1982), and Alcaino & Liller (1984).<sup>6</sup><sup>6</sup>6It should be noted for future reference that the star designated as V on their finding chart 38 for NGC 253 is tabulated as P in the paper. Alcaino & Liller give $`V`$ magnitudes and colours for 24 stars down to $`V`$ = 16.95 ($`BV`$ = 0.59) in the field of NGC 55, and for 19 stars to $`V`$ = 16.53 ($`BV`$ = 0.74) in the vicinity of NGC 253. Those from Hanes & Grieve are somewhat brighter, in the range 9 $`V`$ 14 for the two galaxies. There are a total of ten overlaps between their photometric sequences, with six in the NGC 253 field and four in the NGC 55 field. Both give good agreement, with a mean $`B`$ magnitude offset, $`\mathrm{\Delta }_B=0.025`$ mag, $`\sigma =0.06`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_B=0.045`$ mag, $`\sigma =0.03`$ for NGC 253 and NGC 55 respectively. For calibration at the faint end, the cluster candidates reached down to $`B21`$, and a faint star ($`m_B=21.3`$) from the New Luyten Two–Tenths catalogue (NLTT) \[Luyten 1980\] was also used for the calibration of plate J1739. <sup>7</sup><sup>7</sup>7 There is significant disagreement between Blecha’s and Liller & Alcaino’s photometry. In some instances the data differs by a full magnitude for the same object. This is seen in the COSMOS data where Blecha’s candidates are systematically fainter – see Blecha (1986) for more details. For internal consistency, only Liller & Alcaino’s photometry was used for the calibration of the J1739 plate. Fig. 4 shows the best–fitting calibration curve for the COSMOS instrumental magnitudes for NGC 55. A least–squares fit to the data yields an rms of 0.2 mag. The photometric calibration for NGC 253 shown in Fig. 5 shows greater scatter, with $`\sigma =0.5`$ mag. The origin of this larger scatter in the NGC 253 plate is unknown, but is seen over the entire magnitude range.

An astrometric solution for the COSMOS scans was obtained so as to locate spectroscopically identified objects from this work within the COSMOS datasets. Typical astrometry plate residuals were of order $``$ 0.3 arcseconds.

### 5.2 A New Cluster Sample

Globular clusters should appear as round, marginally extended objects on the photographic plates, whereas stars should be effectively point–like.

The ellipticity for each COSMOS object is derived from its measured image moments, where ellipticity is defined as $`ϵ=1b/a`$ ($`b`$ and $`a`$ are the measured semi–minor and semi–major axes respectively). For both plates an ellipticity limit was set at approximately three times the rms stellar ellipticity, above which threshold objects were classified as being either truly elliptical or a blend of two or more objects. These were consequently excluded from the new cluster candidate sample. Object ellipticity showed only a weak dependence on magnitude, in the sense that at fainter magnitudes the numbers of elliptical objects *marginally* increased. This was not a strong trend and fainter globular clusters should not be discriminated against in this scheme (the limits which define elliptical images increase towards fainter magnitudes.)

A powerful diagnostic to test for the extended nature of the candidates is the measured COSMOS image area as a function of magnitude. Figs. 6 and 7 show the logarithm of the image area (in pixels) against magnitude for COSMOS objects in the magnitude range $`16B22`$. The sharply defined sequence is the stellar locus arising from foreground stars. Extended objects show an excess of area for their magnitude, and are raised from this sequence to some degree. Spectroscopically identified objects from this work which were located in the COSMOS data are shown. Da Costa & Graham (1982) identify three bright star clusters with $`V`$ 17 near the centre of NGC 55, one of which was returned in the COSMOS data and is indicated in Fig. 6. The two remaining clusters, along with a number of cluster candidates failed to be found. These objects are all seen in projection close to the disks of the two galaxies, and were presumably lost in the bright local background. Also, it should be noted that whilst the spectroscopic sample went out to radii comparable with that of the plate scans, NGC 253 was slightly offset from the centre of the COSMOS field, and consequently some candidates fell outside the scanning limits.

In order to quantify the excess in area shown by genuinely extended objects, and to differentiate between object types (stars, galaxies and globular clusters) a line was fit to the stellar sequence and a residual area, $`\delta A`$, for each object calculated. Figs. 8 and 9 show the results of this exercise, where $`\delta A=`$ 0 corresponds to the stellar locus. Several points are evident from these figures. The scatter in $`\delta A`$ is somewhat greater in NGC 253 than in NGC 55, with its the stellar locus being less well constrained (reflecting perhaps the larger photometry residuals – see $`\mathrm{\S }4`$). Those objects which lie on the stellar locus all have radial velocities consistent with foreground stars, and appear point–like on Sky Survey images. Galaxies are located well above the stars, and follow a similar distribution for both fields, with their residual areas increasing strongly as a function of magnitude. Identified globular clusters largely inhabit a parameter space *between* the stars and galaxies, though some overlap is apparent.

Overplotted are the model predictions of Harris et al. \[Harris et al. 1984\], scaled to the distance of the Sculptor group. These are produced by applying the COSMOS algorithm to a set of model cluster images with a range of magnitudes. The model clusters are all generated with King profiles \[King 1962\]. Those shown in Figs. 8 and 9 have $`r_t/r_c=30`$, though models with other concentration parameters ( $`r_t/r_c=6100`$) show similar characteristics. Model clusters shown with size = 1 possess core radii of 1.5 pc and tidal radii of 45 pc (0.15 and 4.6 arcsec respectively at 2 Mpc.) Sizes 2 and 3 are correspondingly twice and three times as large. Six of the spectroscopically identified globular clusters in NGC 253 lie below the size = 3 model line, with the remaining three lying marginally above this. The apparent size of clusters on the sky will be sensitive to the assumed distance to the two galaxies, and as pointed out by Harris et al. \[Harris et al. 1984\], each plate exhibits slightly different behaviour due to saturation effects and their individual isophotal thresholds (in fact they indicate that magnitudes can be in error by as much 0.6 mag for the most extended globular cluster candidates.) The cluster of Da Costa & Graham (1982) shown in Fig. 8 shows characteristics more like that of the galaxies than the other globular clusters, though DSS images of this object show an extremely bright and crowded background which could possibly confuse the analysis software.<sup>8</sup><sup>8</sup>8There is little chance of a misidentification by Da Costa & Graham between their globular cluster and a background galaxy. They obtain a radial velocity for their cluster of $`v_\mathrm{h}=106\pm 8`$ kms<sup>-1</sup> and it is seen in projection against the stellar light of NGC 55.

The regions of parameter space which should contain many globular clusters are delimited in Figs. 8 and 9 by the long dashed lines. The lower limit (above the stellar locus) is set to be 3 $`\sigma `$ from the mean stellar area residual. The upper limit corresponds to approximately size = 4 model clusters and was chosen so as to include as many cluster candidates as possible, whilst minimizing contamination from background galaxies. The degree of crowding increases significantly at fainter magnitudes, therefore a magnitude cut at $`m_B`$ $``$ 20.5 has also been taken. As a final measure, images of each of the candidates have been visually examined for obvious stellar appearance or any structure indicative of a background galaxy. Some 20 objects in total were identified as being obviously ’non–cluster–like’ and were removed from the sample. From the initial datasets, 91 cluster candidates have been identified in NGC 253 and 84 in NGC 55. Table 6 lists the positions and approximate $`B`$ magnitudes of the new cluster candidate samples.

An idea of the contamination in the new globular cluster samples by background galaxies can be gained from a scaling of the relative numbers of spectroscopically identified objects within the defined parameter space. For the NGC 253 sample, there are 7 globular clusters and 7 background galaxies. Assuming that there are no foreground stars in the new cluster samples, then we expect to obtain $``$ 45 clusters in the new NGC 253 sample. In the case of NGC 55, there are 6 galaxies and one globular cluster within the sample limits, giving an expected $``$ 14 globular clusters in our sample.

The specific frequencies of the two galaxies may be calculated from an estimate of their total cluster populations. The turn over in the Galactic globular cluster luminosity function (GCLF) occurs at $`M_V`$ $`=`$ -7.6, $`\sigma =`$ 1.2 \[Harris 1999\]. At a distance of 2.5 Mpc for the Sculptor group, this corresponds to $`B=19.9(BV=0.5)`$. Therefore the cluster candidate selection cut reaches some $``$ 0.6 magnitudes past the turnover. This implies a total cluster population of approximately 60 for NGC 253, which, with $`M_V`$ $`=`$ -20.0, yields a specific frequency, $`S_\mathrm{N}`$ $`=`$ 0.6. Applying the same arguments for NGC 55, an SB(s)m galaxy with $`M_V`$ $`=`$ -19.5 yields an expected total cluster population of approximately 20 and $`S_\mathrm{N}`$ $``$ 0.3.

## 6 Conclusions

We have identified 14 globular clusters in the spiral galaxy NGC 253, and one possible globular cluster belonging to NGC 55. Using digitized plate scans combined with spectroscopically identified stars, galaxies and globular clusters has allowed us to create new samples for the two galaxies which we expect will contain many new globular clusters.

Automated image searching techniques provide an efficient and, more importantly, quantitative way of identifying globular clusters from digitized wide–field photographic plates. Nevertheless, locating a small number of objects which can exhibit a range properties from within an initially large dataset is not straightforward, and automated searches *still* need to be supplemented by visual examination to minimize contamination from other sources. The level of contamination in the Liller & Alcaino (1983a,b) and Blecha (1986) samples indicates the difficulty faced when undertaking searches of this type based on geometrical and/or photometric properties, especially in relatively poor cluster systems.