No globular cluster progenitors in Milky Way satellite galaxies

In order to find the possible progenitors of Milky Way globular clusters, we perform orbit integrations to track the orbits of 151 Galactic globular clusters and the eleven classical Milky Way satellite galaxies backward in time for 11 Gyr in a Milky-Way-plus-satellites potential including the effect of dynamical friction on the satellites. To evaluate possible past associations, we devise a globular-cluster--satellite binding criterion based on the satellite's tidal radius and escape velocity and we test it on globular clusters and satellites associated with the Sagittarius dwarf and with the Large Magellanic Cloud. For these, we successfully recover the dynamical associations highlighted by previous studies and we derive their time of accretion by the Galaxy. Assuming that Milky Way globular clusters are and have been free of dark matter and thus consist of stars alone, we demonstrate that none of the globular clusters show any clear association with the eleven classical Milky Way satellites even though a large fraction of them are believed to be accreted. This means that accreted globular clusters either came in as part of now-disrupted satellite galaxies or that globular clusters may have had dark matter halos in the past -- as suggested by the similar metallicity between globular clusters and dwarf galaxies.