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Description
We report the discovery of 271 previously undetected dwarf galaxies in the outer Fornax cluster regions at radii r_vir_/4<r<r_vir_/2 using data from the Next Generation Fornax Survey (NGFS) with deep coadded u', g', and i' images obtained with Blanco/DECam at Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory. From the 271 dwarf candidates, we find 39 to be nucleated. Together with our previous study of the central Fornax region, the new dwarfs detected with NGFS data number 392, of which 56 are nucleated. The total Fornax dwarf galaxy population from NGFS and other catalogs rises, therefore, to a total of 643 with 181 being nucleated, yielding an overall nucleation fraction of 28%. The absolute i'-band magnitudes for the outer NGFS dwarfs are in the range -18.80<=M_i'_<=-8.78 with effective radii r_eff,i'_=0.18-2.22kpc and an average Sersic index <n>_i'_=0.81. Nonnucleated dwarfs are found to be fainter and smaller by {Delta}<M_i'_>=2.25mag and {Delta}<r_eff,i'_>=0.4kpc than the nucleated dwarfs. We demonstrate a significant clustering of dwarf galaxies on scales <~100kpc, and projected surface number density profile estimates, {Sigma}_N_(r), show a concentration of dwarfs in the Fornax core region within r<~350kpc. {Sigma}_N_(r) has a flat distribution up to ~350kpc, beyond which it declines for the nonnucleated dwarfs. The nucleated dwarfs have a steeper {Sigma}N(r) distribution, are more concentrated toward NGC 1399, and are decreasing rapidly outwards. This is the first time the transition from cluster to field environment has been established for the very faint dwarf galaxy population with robust sample statistics.
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