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Description
We present a large catalog of galaxy loose groups in the Southern Galactic Hemisphere, selected from the Perseus-Pisces redshift Survey (PPS). Particular care is taken in order to obtain group samples as homogeneous as possible to previously published catalogs. Groups are identified with the adaptive Friends-of-Friends (FoF) algorithm of Huchra & Geller (1982ApJ...257..423H), with suitable normalizations V_0_=350km/s and D_0_=0.231h.Mpc. As a necessary ingredient of FoF algorithms, we obtain the galaxy luminosity function (LF) for PPS. Its Schechter parameters ({alpha}=-1.15+/-0.15, M_*_=-19.3+/-0.1) are in good agreement with similar LF estimates from samples previously used to select groups. The LF normalizations {phi}_*_=0.02h^3^/Mpc^3^ appropriate for PPS yields a density threshold {delta}n/n~180 for the adopted D_0_, apparently rather different from the desired {delta}n/n~80 used in previous studies. We then consider several other link normalizations, and briefly discuss their effect on group properties. We suggest to replace the customarily adopted {delta}n/n parametrization with the more direct D_0_ parametrization. All our catalogs contain N_G_~200 groups, significantly more than in most previous studies where group samples were obtained from galaxy data sets of comparable quality to (but smaller extent than) PPS. The group properties are rather sensitive to the adopted D_0_ and V_0_, but vary little with different redshift corrections, redshift cut-off, and galaxy LF. Loose groups in PPS nicely trace the large scale structure (LSS) in the parent galaxy sample. Physical properties of groups in PPS and in other directly comparable samples are in good agreement. There seems to be a complex interplay among LSS features, FoF grouping procedure, and group properties.
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