Tidal stripping of globular clusters in a simulated galaxy cluster
  Using a cosmological N-body numerical simulation of the formation of a galaxy
cluster- sized halo, we analyze the temporal evolution of its globular cluster
population. We follow the dynamical evolution of 38 galactic dark matter halos
orbiting in a galaxy cluster that at redshift z=0 has a virial mass of 1.71 *
10 ^14 Msol h^-1. In order to mimic both "blue" and "red" populations of
globular clusters, for each galactic halo we select two different sets of
particles at high redshift (z ~ 1), constrained by the condition that, at
redshift z=0, their average radial density profiles are similar to the observed
profiles. As expected, the general galaxy cluster tidal field removes a
significant fraction of the globular cluster populations to feed the
intracluster population. On average, halos lost approximately 16% and 29% of
their initial red and blue globular cluster populations, respectively. Our
results suggest that these fractions strongly depend on the orbital trajectory
of the galactic halo, specifically on the number of orbits and on the minimum
pericentric distance to the galaxy cluster center that the halo has had. At a
given time, these fractions also depend on the current clustercentric distance,
just as observations show that the specific frequencyof globular clusters S_N
depends on their clustercentric distance.
