Wide-Field Survey of Dwarf Satellite Systems Around 10 Hosts in the Local Volume

TL;DR

This study conducted a wide-field survey of dwarf satellite galaxies around 10 nearby host galaxies, detecting 153 candidates with many being new discoveries, thereby expanding the understanding of satellite populations in the Local Volume.

Contribution

It provides a uniform, semi-automated detection of low surface brightness satellites around diverse hosts within 12 Mpc, increasing the surveyed area and candidate count compared to previous studies.

Findings

Detected 153 satellite candidates, 93 of which are new.

Surveyed areas roughly double previous efforts at similar luminosity levels.

Candidates are mostly red, spheroid systems consistent with known satellites.

Abstract

We present the results of an extensive search for dwarf satellite galaxies around 10 primary host galaxies in the Local Volume (D$<$12 Mpc) using archival CFHT/MegaCam imaging data. The hosts span a wide range in properties, with stellar masses ranging from that of the LMC to ${\sim}3$ times that of the Milky Way (MW). The surveyed hosts are: NGC 1023, NGC 1156, NGC 2903, NGC 4258, NGC 4565, NGC 4631, NGC 5023, M51, M64, and M104. We detect satellite candidates using a consistent semi-automated detection algorithm that is optimized for the detection of low surface brightness objects. Depending on the host, our completeness limit is $M_g{\sim}-8$ to $-10$ (assuming the distance of the host). We detect objects with surface brightness down to $\mu_{0,g}{\sim}26$ mag arcsec$^{-2}$ at $\gtrsim90\%$ completeness. The survey areas of the six best-surveyed hosts cover most of the inner projected $R<150$ kpc area, which roughly doubles the number of MW-mass hosts surveyed at this level of area and luminosity completeness. The number of detected candidates range from 1 around M64 to 33 around NGC 4258. In total, 153 candidates are found, of which 93 are new. While we defer an analysis of the satellite luminosity functions of the hosts until distance information is available for the candidates, we do show that the candidates are primarily red, spheroid systems with properties roughly consistent with known satellites in the Local Group.