Tidal Stripping of Globular Clusters in the Virgo Cluster
  With the aim of finding evidence of tidal stripping of globular clusters
(GCs) we analysed a sample of 13 elliptical galaxies taken from the ACS Virgo
Cluster Survey (VCS). These galaxies belong to the main concentration of the
Virgo cluster (VC) and present absolute magnitudes $-18.5<M_z<-22.5$. We used
the public GC catalog of Jord\'an et al. (2008) and separated the GC population
into metal poor (blue) and metal rich (red) according to their integrated
colors. The galaxy properties were taken from \citet{Peng:2008}. We found that:
1) The specific frequencies ($S_N$) of total and blue GC populations increase
as a function of the projected galaxy distances $r_p$ to M87. A similar result
is observed when 3-dimensional distances $r_{3D}$ are used. The same behaviours
are found if the analysis are made using the number of GCs per $10^9\Msun$
($T$). The correlations with the clustocentric distance of the host galaxy are
interpreted as evidence of GCs stripping due to tidal forces. 2) No correlation
is found between the slope of GC density profiles of host galaxies and the
galaxy distance to M87 (Virgo central galaxy). 3) We also computed the local
density of GCs ($\rho_{out}$) located further than $6.2 \kpc$ from the galaxy
center for nine galaxies of our sample. We find that the GC population around
most of these galaxies is mainly composed of blue GCs.
  Our results suggest that the number and the fraction of blue and red GCs
observed in elliptical galaxies located near the centers of massive clusters,
could be significantly different from the underlying GC population. These
differences could be explained by tidal stripping effects that occur as
galaxies approach the centers of clusters.
