Alignments of Group Galaxies with Neighboring Groups (original) (raw)
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Galaxy Alignments: An Overview
Space Science Reviews, 2015
The alignments between galaxies, their underlying matter structures, and the cosmic web constitute vital ingredients for a comprehensive understanding of gravity, the nature of matter, and structure formation in the Universe. We provide an overview on the state of the art in the study of these alignment processes and their observational signatures, aimed at a non-specialist audience. The development of the field over the past one hundred years is briefly reviewed. We also discuss the impact of galaxy alignments on measurements of weak gravitational lensing, and discuss avenues for making theoretical and observational progress over the coming decade.
Alignment between galaxies and large-scale structure
Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics, 2009
Based on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR6 (SDSS) and Millennium Simulation (MS) we investigate the alignment between galaxies and large-scale structure. For this purpose we develop two new statistical tools, namely the alignment correlation function and the cos(2θ)-statistic. The former is a two-dimensional extension of the traditional two-point correlation function and the latter is related to the ellipticity correlation function used for cosmic shear measurements. Both are based on the cross correlation between a sample of galaxies with orientations and a reference sample which represents the large-scale structure. We apply the new statistics to the SDSS galaxy catalog. The alignment correlation function reveals an overabundance of reference galaxies along the major axes of red, luminous (L L * ) galaxies out to projected separations of 60 h −1 Mpc. The signal increases with central galaxy luminosity. No alignment signal is detected for blue galaxies. The cos(2θ)-statistic yields very similar results. Starting from a MS semi-analytic galaxy catalog we assign an orientation to each red, luminous and central galaxy, based on that of the central region of the host halo (with size similar to that of the stellar galaxy). As an alternative we use the orientation of the host halo itself. We find a mean projected misalignment between a halo and its central region of ∼ 25 • . The misalignment decreases slightly with increasing luminosity of the central galaxy. Using the orientations and luminosities of the semi-analytic galaxies we repeat our alignment analysis on mock surveys of the MS. Agreement with the SDSS results is good if the central orientations are used. Predictions using the halo orientations as proxies for central galaxy orientations overestimate the observed alignment by more than a factor of 2. Finally, the large volume of the MS allows us to generate a two-dimensional map of the alignment correlation function which shows the reference galaxy distribution to be flattened parallel to the orientations of red luminous galaxies with axis ratios of ∼ 0.5 and ∼ 0.75 for halo and central orientations, respectively. These ratios are almost independent of scale out to 60 h −1 Mpc.
Three Different Types of Galaxy Alignment within Dark Matter Halos
Astrophysical Journal, 2007
Using a large galaxy group catalogue based on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 4 we measure three different types of intrinsic galaxy alignment within groups: halo alignment between the orientation of the brightest group galaxies (BGG) and the distribution of its satellite galaxies, radial alignment between the orientation of a satellite galaxy and the direction towards its BGG, and direct alignment between the orientation of the BGG and that of its satellites. In agreement with previous studies we find that satellite galaxies are preferentially located along the major axis. In addition, on scales r < 0.7 Rvir we find that red satellites are preferentially aligned radially with the direction to the BGG. The orientations of blue satellites, however, are perfectly consistent with being isotropic. Finally, on scales r < 0.1 \Rvir, we find a weak but significant indication for direct alignment between satellites and BGGs. We briefly discuss the implications for weak lensing measurements.
The alignment between satellites and central galaxies: theory versus observations
2007
ABSTRACT Recent studies have shown that the distribution of satellite galaxies is preferentially aligned with the major axis of their central galaxy. The strength of this alignment has been found to depend strongly on the colours of the satellite and central galaxies, and only weakly on the mass of the halo in which the galaxies reside.
The Alignment of Galaxy Structures
The Astrophysical Journal, 2015
We analyzed the orientation of the sample of ACO galaxy clusters. We examined the alignment in a subsample of 1056 galaxy structures taken from the Panko-Flin (2006) Catalog with known BM morphological types. We were looking for a correlation between the orientation of the cluster and the positions of neighboring clusters. The Binggeli effect (the excess of small values of the Δθ angles between the direction toward neighboring clusters and the cluster position angle) is observed, having a range up to about 45 h −1 Mpc. The strongest effect was found for elongated BM type I clusters. This is probably connected with the origins of the supergiant galaxy and with cluster formation along a long filament or plane in a supercluster.
Detection of the Effect of Cosmological Large-Scale Structure on the Orientation of Galaxies
Astrophysical Journal, 2006
Galaxies are not distributed randomly throughout space but are instead arranged in an intricate "cosmic web" of filaments and walls surrounding bubble-like voids. There is still no compelling observational evidence of a link between the structure of the cosmic web and how galaxies form within it. However, such a connection is expected on the basis of our understanding of the origin of galaxy angular momentum: disk galaxies should be highly inclined relative to the plane defined by the large-scale structure surrounding them. Using the two largest galaxy redshift surveys currently in existence (2dFGRS and SDSS) we show at the 99.7% confident level that these alignments do indeed exist: spiral galaxies located on the shells of the largest cosmic voids have rotation axes that lie preferentially on the void surface.
Host galaxy-active galactic nucleus alignments in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2011
We determine the intrinsic shapes and orientations of 27, 450 type I and II active galactic nucleus (AGN) galaxies in the spectroscopic sample of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7, by studying the distribution of projected axis ratios of AGN hosts. Our aim is to study possible alignments between the AGN and host galaxy systems (e.g. the accretion disc and the galaxy angular momentum) and the effect of dust obscuration geometry on the AGN type. We define control samples of non-AGN galaxies that mimic the morphology, colour, luminosity and concentration distributions of the AGN population, taking into account the effects of dust extinction and reddening. Assuming that AGN galaxies have the same underlying three-dimensional shape distribution as their corresponding control samples, we find that the spiral and elliptical type I AGN populations are strongly skewed toward face-on galaxies, while ellipticals and spirals type II AGN are skewed toward edge-on orientations. These findings rule out random orientations for AGN hosts at high confidence for type I spirals (δχ 2 ≈ 230) and type II ellipticals (δχ 2 ≈ 15), while the signal for type I ellipticals and type II spirals is weaker (δχ 2 ≈ 3 and δχ 2 ≈ 6, respectively). We obtain a much stronger tendency for the type II spirals to be edge-on when just high [OIII] equivalent width (EW) AGN are considered, suggesting that > 20% of low [OIII] EW edge-on type II AGN may be missing from the optical sample. Galactic dust absorption of the broad-line region alone cannot explain the observed inclination angle and projected axis ratio distributions of type I and II Seyfert types, implying that obscuration by a small-scale circumnuclear torus is necessary. These results favour a scenario in which the angular momentum of the material which feeds the black hole retains a memory of its original gas source at least to some small, non-negligible degree.
Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): galaxy radial alignments in GAMA groups
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2013
We constrain the distributions of projected radial alignment angles of satellite galaxy shapes within the Galaxy And Mass Assembly survey group catalogue. We identify the galaxy groups using spectroscopic redshifts and measure galaxy projected ellipticities from Sloan Digital Sky Survey imaging. With a sample of 3850 groups with 13655 satellite galaxies with high quality shape measurements, we find a less than 2-σ signal of radial alignments in the mean projected ellipticity components and the projected position angle when using galaxy shape estimates optimized for weak lensing measurements. Our radial alignment measurement increases to greater than 3-σ significance relative to the expectation for no alignments if we use 2-D Sérsic model fits to define galaxy orientations. Our weak measurement of radial alignments is in conflict with predictions from dark matter N -body simulations, which we interpret as evidence for large mis-alignments of baryons and dark matter in group and cluster satellites. Within our uncertainties, that are dominated by our small sample size, we find only weak and marginally significant trends of the radial alignment angle distributions on projected distance from the group centre, host halo mass, and redshift that could be consistent with a tidal torquing mechanism for radial alignments. Using our lensing optimized shape estimators, we estimate that intrinsic alignments of galaxy group members may contribute a systematic error to the mean differential projected surface mass density of groups inferred from weak lensing observations by −1 ± 20% at scales around 300 h −1 kpc from the group centre assuming a photometric redshift r.m.s. error of 10%, and given our group sample with median redshift of 0.17 and median virial masses ∼ 10 13 h −1 M .
Alignment between the host and the nearest neighbor Groups
arXiv (Cornell University), 2008
We measure four different types of alignment signals using the galaxy groups of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 4 to probe the impact of large scale environment on the distribution of satellite galaxies, on the the orientation of the central and satellite galaxies: (1) the alignment between the distributions of the satellites relative to the direction of the nearest neighbor group (NNG); (2) the alignment between the major axis direction of the central galaxy of the host group (HG) and the direction of the NNG; (3) the alignment between the two major axes of the central galaxies of the HG and NNG; and (4) the alignment between the major axes of the satellites of the HG and the direction of the NNG. We find strong alignment signals of satellite distribution and orientation of central galaxy relative to the direction of the NNG even when the NNG locates beyond 3rrmvir3r_{\rm vir}3rrmvir of the host group. The alignment signals are stronger for groups that are more massive and with early type central galaxies. For the orientation of satellite galaxies, however, we do not find any significant alignment signals relative to the direction of the NNG. From these four types of the alignment measures, we conclude that the large scale environment traced by the nearby group mainly impacts the shape of the host dark matter halo, hence impacts the distribution of satellite galaxies and the orientation of central galaxies. Apart from these, there is additional impacts by the large scale environment directly onto the distribution of satellite galaxies.
REMARKS ON THE METHODS OF INVESTIGATIONS OF ALIGNMENT OF GALAXIES
The Astrophysical Journal, 2012
In the 1975 Hawley and Peebles proposed the use of three statistical tests for investigations of galaxy orientations in the large structures. Nowadays, it is considered as the standard method of searching for galactic alignments. In the present paper we analyzed the tests in detail and proposed a few improvements. Based on the improvements, a new method of analysis of the alignment of galaxies in clusters is proposed. The power of this method is demonstrated on the sample of 247 Abell clusters with at least 100 objects in each. The distributions of the position angles for galaxies in each cluster are analyzed using statistical tests: χ 2 , Fourier, autocorrelation, and Kolmogorov test. The mean value of analyzed statistics is compared with theoretical predictions as well as with results obtained from numerical simulations. We performed 1000 simulations of 247 fictitious clusters, each with the numbers of galaxies the same as in the real clusters. We found that orientations of galaxies in analyzed clusters are not random, i.e., that there exists an alignment of galaxies in rich Abell galaxy clusters.