Investigation of the dwarf galaxy population in Hickson compact groups

Abstract

The nature of compact galaxy groups, which is important concerning the influence of the environment on member galaxies, is largely unknown. In this work dwarf galaxies are investigated in the outer regions of compact galaxy groups in order to determine the evolutionary state of the groups. This is reasonable, because dwarf galaxies are the most common galaxy type and their evolution is influenced by their environment. The results of this work show, that the investigated compact galaxy groups are not chance configurations, but physically bound systems. In all investigated groups dwarf galaxies extend far beyond the density centers of the groups. Further the extension of the groups was estimated and the calculated radii are of the order of 2 Mpc indicating sizes similar to large galaxy groups. This result suggests that compact galaxy groups are centers of larger systems.