J-PLUS: Detecting and studying extragalactic globular clusters -- the case of NGC 1023

Extragalactic globular clusters (GCs) are key objects for studying the history of galaxies. The arrival of wide-field surveys such as the Javalambre Photometric Local Universe Survey (J-PLUS) offers new possibilities for the study of these systems. We perform the first study of GCs in J-PLUS to recover information about the history of NGC 1023 taking advantage of wide-field images and 12 filters. We develop the semiautomatic pipeline GCFinder that detects GC candidates in J-PLUS images and can also be adapted to similar surveys. We study the stellar population properties of a sub-sample of GC candidates using spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting. We find 523 GC candidates in NGC 1023, of which $\sim$300 are new. We identify subpopulations of GC candidates, where age and metallicity distributions have multiple peaks. By comparing our results with simulations, we report a possible broad age-metallicity relation, evidence that NGC 1023 experienced accretion events in the past. The dominating age peak is at $10^{10}$ yr. We report a correlation between masses and ages that suggests that massive GC candidates are more likely to survive the turbulent history of the host galaxy. Modeling the light of NGC 1023, we find two spiral-like arms and detect a displacement of the galaxy's photometric center with respect to the outer isophotes and center of GC distribution ($\sim$700 pc and $\sim$1600 pc, respectively), which could be the result of ongoing interaction between NGC 1023 and NGC 1023A. By studying the GC system of NGC 1023 with J-PLUS we showcase the power of multi-band surveys for this kind of study and find evidence of a complex accretion history of the host galaxy.
Comment: Published in A&A, 2022