Raiders of the Lost Algorithm: an optimal Compact Group finder

MARIA ANTONELA TAVERNA; ARIEL ZANDIVAREZ; EUGENIA DÍAZ-GIMÉNEZ

Cordoba

Workshop; IX Friends of Friends Meeting; 2019

IATE-OAC

Abstract: In general, Compact Groups of galaxies (CGs) are supposed to be systems of a few bright galaxies in close proximity that are relatively isolated in space, and that constitute the ideal laboratories to study galaxy-galaxy interactions. Given that the classic criteria for identifying CGs depend strongly on the observational properties, and produce samples of CGs highly contaminated by chance alignments, the aim of this work is to develop an independent algorithm able to identify physically dense and isolated CGs, free from observational biases. In this work, we defined a set of criteria to find CGs in 3D, and analysed the 3D physical nature of CGs using numerical simulations run with different cosmological parameters combined with three different semi-analytical models of galaxy formation. In this talk, we show the preliminary results.