THE NEXT GENERATION VIRGO CLUSTER SURVEY. VIII. THE SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF GLOBULAR CLUSTERS IN THE VIRGO CLUSTER

We report on a large-scale study of the distribution of globular clusters (GCs) throughout the Virgo cluster, based on photometry from the Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey (NGVS), a large imaging survey covering Virgo's primary subclusters (Virgo A = M87 and Virgo B = M49) out to their virial radii. We present the clearest evidence to date showing the difference in concentration between red and blue GCs over the full extent of the cluster, where the red (more metal-rich) GCs are largely located around the massive early-type galaxies in Virgo, while the blue (metal-poor) GCs have a much more extended spatial distribution with significant populations still present beyond 83' (~215 kpc) along the major axes of both M49 and M87. Taken as a whole, our results show that the production of the complex structures in the unrelaxed Virgo cluster core (including the production of the diffuse intracluster light) is an ongoing and continuing process.