Mass Distribution in Compact Groups
Abstract
New redshift surveys of galaxies in the field of compact groups have discovered a population of faint galaxies which act as satellites orbiting in the potential well of the bright group. Here we analyze the mass distribution of the groups by comparing the mass derived from the bright members and the mass obtained from the satellite galaxies. Our analysis indicates the presence of a dark halo around the main group with a mass roughly four times that measured for the dominant galaxies of the compact group. We found that heavier halos are ruled out by the observations when comparing the distribution of positions and redshifts of the satellite galaxies with the distribution of satellites surrounding isolated spiral galaxies. The results agree with a picture where compact groups may form a stable system with galaxies moving in a common dark halo.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/9910332,
title = {Mass Distribution in Compact Groups},
author = {J. Perea and A. del Olmo and L. Verdes-Montenegro and M. S. Yun and W. K. Huchtmeier and B. A. Williams},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/9910332},
year = {2007}
}
Comments
4 pages and 3 figures. Contribution to the IAU Colloquium 174 "Small Galaxy Groups", held at Turku on June 1999. Includes PASP Conference LaTex style