Fossil groups are considered the end product in a galaxy group ’ s evolution – a massive central galaxy that dominates the luminosity budget of the group , as the outcome of efficient merging between intermediate-luminosity members .
Little is however known about the faint satellite systems of fossil groups .
Here we present a SUBARU/Suprime-Cam wide-field , deep imaging study in the B - and R - band of the nearest fossil group NGC 6482 ( M _ { tot } \sim 4 \times 10 ^ { 12 } M _ { \sun } ) , covering the virial radius out to 310 kpc .
We perform detailed completeness estimations and select group member candidates by a combination of automated object detection and visual inspection .
A fiducial sample of 48 member candidates down to M _ { R } \sim - 10.5 mag is detected , making this study the deepest of a fossil group up to now .
We investigate the photometric scaling relations , the colour-magnitude relation , and the luminosity function of our galaxy sample .
We find evidence of recent and ongoing merger events among bright group galaxies .
The colour-magnitude relation is comparable to that of nearby galaxy clusters , and exhibits significant scatter at the faintest luminosities .
The completeness-corrected luminosity function is dominated by early-type dwarfs and is characterized by a faint end slope \alpha = -1.32 \pm 0.05 .
We conclude that the NGC 6482 fossil group shows photometric properties consistent with those of regular galaxy clusters and groups , including a normal abundance of faint satellites .