THE ACCRETION OF DWARF GALAXIES AND THEIR GLOBULAR CLUSTER SYSTEMS

The question of where the low-metallicity globular clusters in early-type galaxies came from has profound implications for the formation of those galaxies. Our work supports the idea that the metal-poor globular cluster systems of giant early-type galaxies formed in dwarf galaxies that have been subsumed by the giants. To support this hypothesis, two linear relations, one involving globular cluster metallicity versus host galaxy luminosity and one involving metallicity versus velocity dispersion were studied. Tentatively, these relations show that the bright ellipticals do not obey the same trend as the dwarfs, suggesting that the low-metallicity globular clusters did not form within their parent bright ellipticals.