TY - JOUR
T1 - A catalog of compact groups of galaxies in the SDSS commissioning data
AU - Lee, Brian C.
AU - Allam, Sahar S.
AU - Tucker, Douglas L.
AU - Annis, James
AU - Johnston, David E.
AU - Scranton, Ryan
AU - Acebo, Yamina
AU - Bahcall, Neta A.
AU - Bartelmann, Matthias
AU - Böhringer, Hans
AU - Ellman, Nancy
AU - Grebel, Eva K.
AU - Infante, Leopoldo
AU - Loveday, Jon
AU - McKay, Timothy A.
AU - Prada, Francisco
AU - Schneider, Donald P.
AU - Stoughton, Chris
AU - Szalay, Alexander S.
AU - Vogeley, Michael S.
AU - Voges, Wolfgang
AU - Yanny, Brian
PY - 2004/4
Y1 - 2004/4
N2 - Compact groups (CGs) of galaxies-relatively poor groups of galaxies in which the typical separations between members is of the order of a galaxy diameter-offer an exceptional laboratory for the study of dense galactic environments with short (<1 Gyr) dynamical timescales. We present an objectively defined catalog of CGs in 153 deg2 of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Early Data Release. To identify CGs, we applied a modified version of Hickson's criteria of 1982 aimed at finding the highest-density CGs and thus reducing the number of chance alignments. Our catalog contains 175 CGs down to a limiting galaxy magnitude of r* = 21. The resulting catalog has a median depth of zmed ≈ 0.13, substantially deeper than previous CG catalogs. Since the SDSS will eventually image up to one-quarter of the celestial sphere, we expect our final catalog, based on the completed SDSS, will contain on the order of 5000-10,000 CGs. This catalog will be useful for conducting studies of the general characteristics of CGs, their environments, and their component galaxies.
AB - Compact groups (CGs) of galaxies-relatively poor groups of galaxies in which the typical separations between members is of the order of a galaxy diameter-offer an exceptional laboratory for the study of dense galactic environments with short (<1 Gyr) dynamical timescales. We present an objectively defined catalog of CGs in 153 deg2 of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Early Data Release. To identify CGs, we applied a modified version of Hickson's criteria of 1982 aimed at finding the highest-density CGs and thus reducing the number of chance alignments. Our catalog contains 175 CGs down to a limiting galaxy magnitude of r* = 21. The resulting catalog has a median depth of zmed ≈ 0.13, substantially deeper than previous CG catalogs. Since the SDSS will eventually image up to one-quarter of the celestial sphere, we expect our final catalog, based on the completed SDSS, will contain on the order of 5000-10,000 CGs. This catalog will be useful for conducting studies of the general characteristics of CGs, their environments, and their component galaxies.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/17544398864
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/17544398864#tab=citedBy
U2 - 10.1086/382236
DO - 10.1086/382236
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:17544398864
SN - 0004-6256
VL - 127
SP - 1811
EP - 1859
JO - Astronomical Journal
JF - Astronomical Journal
IS - 4 1780
ER -