Satellites around Edge-on Galaxies. I. Dynamical Masses

We have undertaken a search for satellites around edge-on galaxies in the EGIPS catalog, which contains 16 551 objects with declinations above -30(degrees). We searched for systems with a central galaxy dominating in brightness by at least 1(m) compared to its companions. As a result, we discovered 1097 candidate satellites around 764 EGIPS galaxies with projected distances less than 500 kpc and a radial velocity difference less than 300 km s(-1). Of these, 757 satellites around 547 central galaxies have radial velocity accuracies higher than 20 km s(-1) and satisfy the gravitationally bound condition. The ensemble of satellites is characterized by an average projected distance of 84 kpc and an average radial velocity dispersion of 103 km s(-1). Treating small satellites as test particles moving on isotropic orbits around central EGIPS galaxies, we determined the projected (orbital) masses of the edge-on galaxies. Within the luminosity range of 1.3x10(10) to 42x10(10) L-circle dot, the total mass of the systems is well described by a linear dependence logM(p) proportional to 0.88log < L-Kg with an average total mass-to-K-band luminosity equal to (17.5 +/- 0.8)M-circle dot/L-circle dot, which is typical for nearby spiral galaxies such as the Milky Way, M 31 and M 81.