Dwarf Galaxies in the Leo I Group: the Group Luminosity Function beyond the Local Group

Abstract

We present first results of a survey of the Leo I group at 10 Mpc for M_R < -10 dwarf galaxies. This is part of a larger program to measure the faint end of the galaxy luminosity function in nearby poor groups. Our method is optimized to find Local-Group-like dwarfs down to dwarf spheroidal surface brightnesses, but we also find very large LSB dwarfs in Leo I with no Local Group counterpart. A preliminary measurement of the luminosity function yields a slope consistent with that measured in the Local Group.

4 pages, 4 figures, to appear in ``Dwarf Galaxies and their Environment'', proceedings of a conference in Bad Honnef, Germany, 23-27 January 2001, eds. K.S. de Boer, R.J. Dettmar, & U. Klein (Shaker Verlag), in press