The globular cluster system of the young elliptical NGC 6702

We study the globular cluster (GC) system of the dust-lane elliptical galaxy NGC 6702, using B-, V- and I-band imaging observations carried out at the Keck telescope. This galaxy has a spectroscopic age of ~2Gyr suggesting recent star formation. We find strong evidence for a bimodal GC colour distribution, with the blue peak having a colour similar to that of the Galactic halo GCs. Assuming that the blue GCs are indeed old and metal-poor, we estimate an age of 2-5Gyr and supersolar metallicity for the red GC subpopulation. Despite the large uncertainties, this is in reasonable agreement with the spectroscopic galaxy age. Additionally, we estimate a specific frequency of SN=2.3+/-1.1 for NGC 6702. We predict that passive evolution of NGC 6702 will further increase its specific frequency to SN~2.7 within 10Gyr, in closer agreement to that of typical present-day ellipticals. We also discuss evidence that the merger/accretion event that took place a few Gyr ago involved a high gas fraction.