  We present an X-ray study of the galaxy group or poor cluster MKW 4. Working
with XMM data we examine the distribution and properties of the hot gas which
makes up the group halo. The inner halo shows some signs of structure, with
circular or elliptical beta models providing a poor fit to the surface
brightness profile. This may be evidence of large scale motion in the inner
halo, but we do not find evidence of sharp fronts or edges in the emission. The
temperature of the halo declines in the core, with deprojected spectral fits
showing a central temperature of ~1.3 keV compared to ~3 keV at 100 kpc. In the
central ~30 kpc of the group multi-temperature spectral models are required to
fit the data, but they indicate a lack of gas at low temperatures. Steady state
cooling flow models provide poor fits to the inner regions of the group and the
estimated cooling time of the gas is long except within the central dominant
galaxy, NGC 4073. Abundance profiles show a sharp increase in the core of the
group, with mean abundance rising by a factor of two in the centre of NGC 4073.
Fitting individual elements shows the same trend, with high values of Fe, Si
and S in the core. We estimate that ~50% of the Fe in the central 40 kpc was
injected by SNIa, in agreement with previous ASCA studies. Using our best
fitting surface brightness and temperature models, we calculate the mass, gas
fraction, entropy and mass-to-light ratio of the group. At 100 kpc (~0.1 virial
radii) the total mass and gas entropy of the system (~2x10^13 Msol and ~300 keV
cm^2) are quite comparable to those of other systems of similar temperature,
but the gas fraction is rather low (~1%). We conclude that MKW 4 is a fairly
relaxed group, which has developed a strong central temperature gradient but
not a large-scale cooling flow.
