Can tidal interactions produce MGC1?

Sammanfattning: The globular cluster population of large spiral galaxies can be divided into two populations: one population which formed in-situ and one which has been assembled through capture of clusters that have been tidally stripped away from other galaxies during close encounters or mergers. In this work, I focus on the globular cluster MGC1, which is orbiting the M31 galaxy. MGC1 is an extremely isolated cluster, located 200 kpc from the M31 centre. Thus, I propose the idea that this cluster was one of those captured from another galaxy. I investigate encounters between dwarf galaxies with masses ranging from 10^7 solar masses to 10^10 solar masses and the M31 galaxy, using numerical simulations, in which I focus on globular clusters that are tidally stripped away from the dwarf and left on wide orbits in the M31 galaxy. Motivated by the absence of observed tidal features around MGC1, I constrain my encounters such that, afterwards, the dwarf should remain intact and no visible damage should be caused to M31. I find this to be a viable scenario for the origin of MGC1 if M31 has had approximately 20 encounters with dwarf galaxies that do not merge with M31, but rather leave the system post-encounter. Although my results provide a means to produce MGC1, the encounters I simulate do not reproduce the entire observed population of clusters in M31, especially lacking in clusters located closer in. I therefore suggest that these 20 encounters are only a subset of all the encounters that M31 has had in the past.