It has been proposed that a galaxy ’ s nova rate might be enhanced by the production of nova progenitor binaries in the dense cores of its globular clusters ( GCs ) .
To explore this idea , relative nova rates in three Virgo elliptical galaxies , M87 , M49 and M84 , which have significantly different GC specific frequencies ( S _ { N } ) of 14 , 3.6 , and 1.6 , respectively , were measured over the course of 4 epochs spanning a period of 14 months .
To simplify the analysis , observations of the nearly equidistant galaxies were made on the same nights , with the same integration times , and through the same filter ( H \alpha ) , so that the relative numbers of novae discovered would reflect the relative nova rates .
At the conclusion of our survey we found a total of 27 novae associated with M87 , 37 with M49 , and 19 with M84 .
After correcting for survey completeness , we found annual nova rates of 154 ^ { +23 } _ { -19 } , 189 ^ { +26 } _ { -22 } , and 95 ^ { +15 } _ { -14 } , for M87 , M49 , and M84 , respectively , corresponding to K -band luminosity-specific nova rates of 3.8 \pm 1.0 , 3.4 \pm 0.6 , and 3.0 \pm 0.6 novae per year per 10 ^ { 10 } ~ { } L _ { K, \odot } .
The overall results of our study suggest that a galaxy ’ s nova rate simply scales with its luminosity , and is insensitive to its GC specific frequency .
Two novae , one in M87 and one in M84 , were found to be spatially coincident with known GCs .
After correcting for the mass fraction in GCs , we estimate that novae are likely enhanced relative to the field by at least an order of magnitude in the GC systems of luminous Virgo ellipticals .