Dwarf Galaxies in Nearby Galaxy Groups

The nearby Universe is populated mostly by galaxy groups, whose dominant galaxies are surrounded by dwarf galaxies. We have observed nearby galaxy groups in a distance range of 13-34 Mpc with a variety of different morphologies, densities, and richness in order to investigate their dwarf galaxy populations and to detect tidal streams in the halos of their dominant galaxies. We report on our first results deep wide-field imaging data of a sample of twelve galaxy groups with a spiral or a S0 as dominant galaxy. The observed galaxy groups have been selected according to their density and thus vary from nearly isolated galaxies to very dense environments. For all of their dominant galaxies we were able to detect a number of candidate dwarf companions, but we did not detect signs of tidal interactions.