X-ray Observations of Optically Selected Giant Elliptical-Dominated Galaxy Groups

Abstract

We present a combined optical and X-ray analysis of three optically selected X-ray bright groups with giant elliptical galaxies in the center. These massive ellipticals were targeted for XMM-Newton X-ray observations based on their large velocity dispersions and their proximity to a nearby ROSAT X-ray source. Additionally, these targets are significantly brighter in the optical than their nearest neighbors. We show that one of these systems meets the standard criteria for a fossil group. While the other two systems have a prominent magnitude gap in the E/S0 ridgeline, they do not appear to have reached the fossil-like final stage of group evolution.

8 pages, 6 figures, Accepted for publication in ApJ

References in corpus (28)

• The Second Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• The Fifth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• Estimating Fixed Frame Galaxy Magnitudes in the SDSS
• An investigation of cooling flows and general cluster properties from an X-ray image deprojection analysis of 207 clusters of galaxies
• The Masses of Nuclear Black Holes in Luminous Elliptical Galaxies and Implications for the Space Density of the Most Massive Black Holes
• Optical Mass Estimates of Galaxy Clusters
• The GEMS project: X-ray analysis and statistical properties of the group sample
• How special are Brightest Group and Cluster Galaxies?
• The nature and space density of fossil groups of galaxies
• Galaxy Groups in the SDSS DR4: II. halo occupation statistics
• The luminosities, sizes and velocity dispersions of Brightest Cluster Galaxies: Implications for formation history
• The Birmingham-CfA cluster scaling project - I: gas fraction and the M-T relation
• The Lx-T and Lx-sigma Relationships for Galaxy Clusters Revisited
• The Bright SHARC Survey: The Cluster Catalog
• The Formation of Fossil Galaxy Groups in the hierarchical Universe
• The Isolated Elliptical NGC 1132: Evidence For a Merged Group of Galaxies?
• The XMM-Newton EPIC Background and the production of Background Blank Sky Event Files
• X-ray Over-Luminous Elliptical Galaxies: A New Class of Mass Concentrations in the Universe?
• Scaling relations in fossil galaxy groups
• An old galaxy group: Chandra X-ray observations of the nearby fossil group NGC 6482
• XMM-Newton observation of the distant (z=0.6) galaxy cluster RX J1120.1+4318
• ESO 3060170 -- a massive fossil galaxy group with a heated gas core?
• Fossil Groups in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• XMM-Newton Observations of Evolution of Cluster X-Ray Scaling Relations at z=0.4-0.7
• The luminosity function of the fossil group RX J1552.2+2013
• A fossil galaxy cluster; an X-ray and optical study of RX J1416.4+2315
• Cl 1205+44, a fossil group at z = 0.59
• X-ray bright groups and their galaxies

Cited by in corpus (3)

• The XMM Cluster Survey: The Stellar Mass Assembly of Fossil Galaxies
• Investigating the cores of fossil systems with Chandra
• Revisiting the fossil group candidates UGC 842 and NGC 6034