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Andisheh Mahdavi, M. J. Geller (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics), H. Boehringer (Max-Planck Institut fuer extraterrestrische Physik), M. Ramella (Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste)
Groups of galaxies---collapsed objects with masses in the range 1013--1014 M\sun---house most of the universe's baryons in the form of a kT ~1 keV plasma. To study the dynamics of the galaxies, the structure of the hot gas, and the overall distribution of dark matter in these low mass systems, we undertake a systematic X-ray and optical search for groups within 0.01 < z < 0.04 over 1/4 of the sky. By constructing the only statistically complete, redshift-selected sample of X-ray emitting groups, we seek to examine the X-ray and optical scaling laws of groups, the orbital distribution of the galaxies, and the relationship between star formation in the group members and the properties of the X-ray emitting medium.
The final catalog consists of 260 optically selected groups, of which 59 have X-ray emission in the ROSAT All Sky Survey, as well as a redshift survey of 3000 galaxies in the direction of the X-ray emitting groups.
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The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: amahdavi@cfa.harvard.edu