Faint dwarf spheroidals in the Fornax Cluster - A flat luminosity function
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2003
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Abstract
We have discovered similar or equal to70 very faint dwarf galaxies in the Fornax Cluster. These dSphs candidates follow the same magnitude-surface brightness relation as their counterparts in the Local Group, and even extend it to fainter limits. The faintest dSph candidate in our sample has an absolute magnitude of M-V similar or equal to -8.8 mag and a central surface brightness of mu(V) similar or equal to 27 mag/arcsec(2). There exists a tight color-magnitude relation for the early-type galaxies in Fornax that extends from the giant to the dwarf regime. The faint-end slope of the luminosity function of the early-type dwarfs is flat (alpha similar or equal to -1.1 +/- 0.1), contrary to the results obtained by Kambas et al. (2000).
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galaxies : clusters : individual : Fornax cluster, galaxies : dwarf, galaxies : fundamental parameters, galaxies : luminosity function