The structure and evolution of galaxy groups

Despite the importance of galaxy groups as the most common galaxy environment,and the likely repository of the majority of baryons in the Universe, no studyof the dynamics and baryon contents of an unbiased sample has ever beenconducted. We have begun a project to remedy this, targetting a sample of 25groups derived from the 2dF galaxy redshift survey with XMM, in combination withthe large IMACS imaging spectrograph. The resulting dataset will provide aunique resource for studying the structure and evolution of groups, and the wayin which group galaxies interact with their evolving environment. Opticalimaging and IMACS spectroscopy of these is progressing well, and we request 20ksec observations of seven groups, to add to the three awarded in AO3. truncated!, Please see actual data for full text [truncated!, Please see actual data for full text]