The Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey (NGVS). XXXI. The Kinematics of Intracluster Globular Clusters in the Core of the Virgo Cluster
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract Intracluster (IC) populations are expected to be a natural result of the hierarchical assembly of clusters, yet their low space densities make them difficult to detect and study. We present the first definitive kinematic detection of an IC population of globular clusters (GCs) in the Virgo cluster, around the central galaxy M87. This study focuses on the Virgo core, for which the combination of Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey photometry and follow-up spectroscopy allows us to reject foreground star contamination and explore GC kinematics over the full Virgo dynamical range. The GC kinematics changes gradually with galactocentric distance, decreasing in mean velocity and increasing in velocity dispersion, eventually becoming indistinguishable from the kinematics of Virgo dwarf galaxies at R > 320 kpc. By kinematically tagging M87 halo and intracluster GCs, we find that (1) the M87 halo has a smaller fraction (52 ± 3%) of blue clusters with respect to the IC counterpart (77 ± 10%), (2) the (g′−r′)0 versus (i′−z′)0 color–color diagrams reveal a galaxy population that is redder than the IC population, which may be due to a different composition in chemical abundance and progenitor mass, and (3) the ICGC distribution is shallower and more extended than the M87 GCs, yet still centrally concentrated. The ICGC specific frequency, S N,ICL = 10.2 ± 4.8, is consistent with what is observed for the population of quenched, low-mass galaxies within 1 Mpc from the cluster’s center. The IC population at Virgo’s center is thus consistent with being an accreted component from low-mass galaxies tidally stripped or disrupted through interactions, with a total mass of .
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".