The Exploration of Local VolumE Satellites (ELVES) Survey: A Nearly\n Volume-Limited Sample of Nearby Dwarf Satellite Systems

Abstract

We present the final results of the Exploration of Local VolumE Satellites\n(ELVES) Survey, a survey of the dwarf satellites of a nearly volume-limited\nsample of Milky Way (MW)-like hosts in the Local Volume. Hosts are selected\nsimply via a cut in luminosity ($M_{K_s}<-22.1$ mag) and distance ($D<12$ Mpc).\nWe have cataloged the satellites of 25 of the 31 such hosts, with another five\ntaken from the literature. All hosts are surveyed out to at least 150 projected\nkpc ($\\sim R_\\mathrm{vir}/2$) with the majority surveyed to 300 kpc ($\\sim\nR_\\mathrm{vir}$). Satellites are detected using a consistent semi-automated\nalgorithm specialized for low surface brightness dwarfs. As shown through\nextensive tests with injected galaxies, the catalogs are complete to\n$M_V\\sim-9$ mag and $\\mu_{0,V}\\sim26.5$ mag arcsec$^{-2}$. Candidates are\nconfirmed to be real satellites through distance measurements including\nredshift, tip of the red giant branch, and surface brightness fluctuations.\nAcross all 30 surveyed hosts, there are 338 confirmed satellites with a further\n105 candidates awaiting distance measurement. For the vast majority of these,\nwe provide consistent multi-band S\\'{e}rsic photometry. We show that satellite\nabundance correlates with host mass, with the MW being quite typical amongst\ncomparable systems, and that satellite quenched fraction rises steeply with\ndecreasing satellite mass, mirroring the quenched fraction for the MW and M31.\nThe ELVES survey represents a massive increase in the statistics of surveyed\nsystems with known completeness, and the provided catalogs are a unique dataset\nto explore various aspects of small-scale structure and dwarf galaxy evolution.\n