We present the results of a photometric study of the early-type galaxy NGC 6876 and the surrounding globular cluster system ( GCS ) .
The host galaxy is a massive elliptical , the brightest of this type in the Pavo Group .
According to its intrinsic brightness ( M _ { v } \sim -22.7 ) , it is expected to belong to a galaxy cluster instead of a poor group .
Observational material consists of g ^ { \prime } , r ^ { \prime } , i ^ { \prime } images obtained with the Gemini/GMOS camera .
The selected globular cluster ( GC ) candidates present a clear bimodal colour distribution at different galactocentric radii , with mean colours and dispersions for the metal-poor ( ‘ ‘ blue ’ ’ ) and metal-rich ( ‘ ‘ red ’ ’ ) typical of old GCs .
The red subpopulation dominates close to the galaxy centre , in addition to the radial projected distribution showing that they are more concentrated towards the galaxy centre .
The azimuthal projected distribution shows an overdensity in the red subpopulation in the direction of a trail observed in X-ray that could be evidence of interactions with its spiral neighbour NGC 6872 .
The turn-over of the luminosity function gives an estimated distance modulus ( m - M ) \approx 33.5 and the total population amounts to 9400 GCs , i.e .
a quite populous system .
The halo mass obtained using the number ratio ( i.e .
the number of GCs with respect to the baryonic and dark mass ) gives a total of \sim 10 ^ { 13 } , meaning it is a very massive galaxy , given the environment .