The presence of large fractions of metal-poor stars in dwarf galaxies still belonging to GCs raises questions about cluster mass loss and their formation mechanisms. These high ratios of metal-poor GCs relative to the number of low-metallicity field stars could imply that clusters in dwarfs have not lost enough mass, compared to more massive galaxies, or that the formation of field stars was suppressed by different kinds of feedback. In this work we study to what extent the formation and evolution of GCs play a role in setting the characteristic U-shape of the GC specific frequency as a function of galactic mass. Our study consists of modeling the dynamical evolution of GCs in dwarf galaxies, quantifying the fraction of mass that they lose and ends up as field stars. We make use of N-body models coupled to high-resolution cosmological simulations to account for both, the internal evolution of GCs and their interaction with their host galaxy across cosmic time. The main result is that the amount of mass that GC systems lose scales with the mass of the host galaxy, i.e., the GC mass loss efficiency is lowest in low-mass dwarfs. This tendency naturally translates to high ratios of GCs to field stars, and supports the scenario in which the combination of GC disruption mechanisms play an important role in shaping the GC specific frequency in dwarf galaxies.
BIO
Elizabeth Moreno Hilario is a Shuimu Fellow at the Department of Astronomy, Tsinghua University. She earned her PhD in Astronomy in 2024 at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). Her research focuses on globular clusters within the framework of galaxy evolution, utilizing advanced N-body simulations and high-performance computing. Her main interests include analyzing mass loss mechanisms and tidal interactions in stellar systems.
