Predicting accreted satellite galaxy masses and accretion redshifts based on globular cluster orbits in the E-MOSAICS simulations

Understand

The ages and metallicities of globular clusters (GCs) are known to be powerful tracers of the properties of their progenitor galaxies, enabling their use in determining the merger histories of galaxies.

• However, while useful in separating GCs into individual accretion events, the orbits of GC groups themselves have received less attention as probes of their progenitor galaxy properties.
• In this work, we use simulations of galaxies and their GC systems from the E-MOSAICS project to explore how the present-day orbital properties of GCs are related to the properties of their progenitor galaxies.
• We find that the orbits of GCs deposited by accretion events are sensitive to the mass and merger redshift of the satellite galaxy.