Old stellar population synthesis: new age and mass estimates for Mayall Ⅱ = G1

Mayall Ⅱ = G1 is one of the most luminous globular clusters (GCs) in M31. Here, we determine its age and mass by comparing multicolor photometry with theo-retical stellar population synthesis models. Based on far- and near-ultraviolet GALEX photometry, broad-band UBV RI, and infrared JHK8 2MASS data, we construct the most extensive spectral energy distribution of G1 to date, spanning the wavelength range from 1538 to 20000A. A quantitative comparison with a variety of simple stellar pop-ulation (SSP) models yields a mean age which is consistent with G1 being among the oldest building blocks of M31 and having formed within ～1.7Gyr after the Big Bang. Irrespective of the SSP model or stellar initial mass function adopted, the resulting mass estimates (of order 107M⊙) indicate that G1 is one of the most massive GCs in the Local Group. However, we speculate that the cluster's exceptionally high mass suggests that it may not be a genuine GC. Our results also suggest that G1 may contain, on average, (1.65±0.63) × 102L⊙ far-ultraviolet-bright, hot, extreme horizontal-branch stars, depend-ing on the adopted SSP model. In addition, we demonstrate that extensive multi-passband photometry coupled with SSP analysis enables one to obtain age estimates for old SSPs that have similar accuracies as those from integrated spectroscopy or resolved stellar pho-tometry, provided that some of the free parameters can be constrained independently.