Dwarf Galaxies in the M66 Group

Abstract

As part of a photometric survey of eight Milky-Way sized galaxies in the \acrlong{lv}, we have searched for new dwarf galaxy candidates in the M66 Group. All imaging was obtained using g-band photometry with the \acrlong{hsc} mounted on the 8.2m Subaru telescope. Our observations identify 30 dwarf galaxies, of which 16 are previously uncatalogued candidates. The dwarf galaxies and candidates were identified through a comprehensive search of $\sim\!13\:\si{deg}^2$ of the sky, both visually by eye and semi-automatically with the \gls{mto} segmentation algorithm. A morphological analysis using \gls{galfit} reveals surface brightness profiles consistent with known dwarf galaxies in other groups. The structural parameters of the candidates span over luminosity $M_\mathrm{g}\!\in\!\left(-16, -10 \right) \si{\mag}$, mean effective surface brightness $\left<\mu\right>_{\mathrm{e}}\!\in\!\left(22, 27\right) \: \si{\mag}\, \si{\arcsec}^{-2}$, and effective radius $R_{\mathrm{e}}\!\in\!\left(0.2, 1.8\right) \: \si{\kilo \parsec}$. Our final catalogue reaches its 50\% completeness limit at magnitude $M_{\mathrm{g}} \sim -9.90\:\si{mag}$ and mean effective surface brightness $\left<\mu\right>_{\mathrm{e}} \sim 28.01 \pm 0.05$, reaching $\sim\!\!2$ mag deeper than previous studies with the \acrlong{sdss}. The work presented in this thesis lays the foundation for further investigation of dwarf galaxies in the Local Volume with the Satellites of Nearby Galaxies survey. Show more