Compact groups of galaxies selected by stellar mass: the 2MASS compact group catalogue

We present a photometric catalogue of compact groups of galaxies (p2MCGs) automatically extracted from the Two-Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) extended source catalogue. A total of 262 p2MCGs are identified, following the criteria defined by Hickson, of which 230 survive visual inspection (given occasional galaxy fragmentation and blends in the 2MASS parent catalogue). Only one quarter of these 230 groups were previously known compact groups (CGs). Among the 144 p2MCGs that have all their galaxies with known redshifts, 85 (59 per cent) have four or more accordant galaxies. This v2MCG sample of velocity-filtered p2MCGs constitutes the largest sample of CGs (with N 4) catalogued to date, with both well-defined selection criteria and velocity filtering, and is the first CG sample selected by stellar mass. It is fairly complete up to K group 9 and radial velocity of 6000 km s -1 .