The GEMS project: X-ray analysis and statistical properties of the group sample

Abstract

The GEMS project involves a multi-wavelength study of a sample of 60 galaxy groups. Substantial ROSAT PSPC observations are used to characterise the state of the intergalactic medium in each. We present the results of a uniform analysis of these ROSAT data, and a statistical investigation of the relationship between X-ray and optical properties across the sample. The steepening of the LX-TX relation in the group regime reported previously is not seen in our sample, which fits well onto the cluster trend. A number of biases affect the fitting of regression lines under these circumstances, and until the impact of these has been thoroughly investigated it seems best to regard the slope of the group LX-TX relation as being poorly determined. A significant problem in comparing the properties of groups and clusters is the derivation of system radii, to allow different systems to be compared within regions having the same overdensity. We find evidence that group velocity dispersion provides a very unreliable measure of system mass (and hence radius), with a number of groups having remarkably low values of sigma. We confirm that the surface brightness profiles of groups are significantly flatter than those of clusters, however we find no significant tendency within our sample for cooler groups to show flatter profiles. This result is inconsistent with simple universal preheating models. The morphology of the galaxies in the GEMS groups is correlated to their X-ray properties in a number of ways: we confirm the very strong relationship between X-ray emission and a dominant early-type central galaxy, and also find that spiral fraction is correlated with the temperature of the hot gas. A class of spiral-rich groups with little or no X-ray emission, probably corresponds to groups which have not yet fully collapsed.