Galaxy groups in the VIMOS-VLT Deep Survey

We use mock catalogues extracted from the Millennium Simulation to study the potential systematics that might affect the overall distribution of the identified systems, and also to asses how well galaxy redshifts trace the line-of-sight velocity dispersion of the underlying mass overdensity. We train on these mock catalogues the adopted group-finding technique (the Voronoi-Delaunay Method, VDM), to recover in a robust and unbiased way the redshift and velocity dispersion distributions of groups and maximize the level of completeness (C) and purity (P) of the group catalogue.

We identify 318(/144) VVDS groups with at least 2(/3) members within 0.2<=z<=1.0, globally with C=60% and P=50%. We use the group sample to study the redshift evolution of the fraction f_b_ of blue galaxies (U-B<=1) within 0.2<=z<=1 in both groups and in the whole ensemble of galaxies irrespectively of their environment.