THE ELLIPTICITIES OF GALACTIC AND LARGE-MAGELLANIC-CLOUD GLOBULAR-CLUSTERS

The correlations between the ellipticity and the age and mass of LMC g lobular clusters are examined, and both are found to be weak. It is co ncluded that neither of these properties is mainly responsible for the observed differences in the LMC and Galactic globular cluster ellipti city distributions. Most importantly, age cannot be the primary factor in the LMC-Galaxy ellipticity differences, even if there is a relatio nship, as even the oldest LMC clusters are more elliptical than their Galactic counterparts. The strength of the tidal field of the parent g alaxy is proposed as the dominant factor in determining the ellipticit ies of that galaxy's globular clusters. A strong tidal field rapidly d estroys velocity anisotropies in initially triaxial, rapidly rotating elliptical globular clusters. A weak tidal field, however, is unable t o remove these anisotropies and the clusters remain close to their ini tial shapes.