Baryonically Closed Galaxy Groups

Abstract

Elliptical galaxies and their groups having the largest L_x/L_B lie close to the locus in the L_x,L_B diagram expected for closed systems with baryon fractions equal to the cosmic mean value, f_b = 0.16. The estimated baryon fractions for several of these galaxies/groups are also close to 0.16 when the gas density is extrapolated to the virial radius. Evidently they are the least massive baryonically closed systems. Gas retention in these groups implies that non-gravitational heating cannot exceed about 1 keV per particle, consistent with the heating required to produce the deviation of groups from the L_x - T correlation for more massive clusters. Isolated galaxies/groups with X-ray luminosities significantly lower than baryonically closed groups may have undermassive dark halos, overactive central AGNs, or higher star formation efficiencies. The virial mass and hot gas temperatures of nearly or completely closed groups correlate with the group X-ray luminosities and the optical luminosities of the group-centered elliptical galaxy, an expected consequence of their merging history. The ratio of halo mass to the mass of the central galaxy for X-ray luminous galaxy/groups is about 80.Comment: 7 pages; Accepted by ApJ Letter