Extending the globular cluster system-halo mass relation to the lowest galaxy masses

Abstract

High-mass galaxies, with halo masses M200 < 1010M⊙, reveal a remarkable near-linear relation between their globular cluster (GC) system mass and their host galaxy halo mass. Extending this relation to the mass range of dwarf galaxies has been problematic due to the difficulty in measuring independent halo masses. Here we derive new halo masses based on stellar and HI gas kinematics for a sample of nearby dwarf galaxies with GC systems. We find that the GC system mass-halo mass relation for galaxies populated by GCs holds from halo masses of M200 ~ 1014M⊙ down to below M200 ~ 109M⊙, although there is a substantial increase in scatter towards low masses. In particular, three well-studied ultradiffuse galaxies, with dwarf-like stellar masses, reveal a wide range in their GC-to-halo mass ratios. We compare our GC system-halo mass relation to the recent model of El Badry et al., finding that their fiducial model does not reproduce our data in the low-mass regime. This may suggest that GC formation needs to be more efficient than assumed in their model, or it may be due to the onset of stochastic GC occupation in low-mass haloes. Finally, we briefly discuss the stellar mass-halo mass relation for our low-mass galaxies with GCs, and we suggest some nearby dwarf galaxies for which searches for GCs may be fruitful.