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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 August 2015
Côté (1995) surveyed the nearby Centaurus A (Cen A) and Sculptor (Sci) group regions in the search for gas-rich, dwarf irregular galaxies (Irr) which are associated with these galaxy aggregates. 36 Irrs have been found and confirmed as new group members via 21cm/Hα redshifts. In finding this large number of Irrs, the question rises whether systems from the other dwarf galaxy family, the gas-poor dwarf ellipticals (dE), also exist in the two groups. So far nothing is known about dE membership but taking into account the morphology-density relation for dwarfs (Binggeli et al. 1990) a number ratio Irr/dE≈ 1 - 2 would be expected. Prompted by these “missing” dEs we started a large program to identify and study dEs in Cen A and Sci. The main scientific goals are (1) to find dE candidates and to establish group membership via velocity or distance and (2) to estimate the luminosity function (LF) of dwarf galaxies to the faintest possible luminosities. For the two groups, being respectively at a mean distance of 4.0 Mpc and 2.5 Mpc, we will be able to reach dwarf galaxies 4-5 magnitudes fainter than in the previous studies in the Virgo and Fornax clusters and the five groups Leo I, Dorado, NGC1400, NGC5044, and Antlia (Sandage et al. 1985, Ferguson &: Sandage 1990). We briefly outline here first results from the CenA group. All details about the complete survey including Scl will be presented in Jerjen et al. (1997)