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Title: Alignments of galaxies within cosmic filaments from SDSS DR7

Abstract

Using a sample of galaxy groups selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7, we examine the alignment between the orientation of galaxies and their surrounding large-scale structure in the context of the cosmic web. The latter is quantified using the large-scale tidal field, reconstructed from the data using galaxy groups above a certain mass threshold. We find that the major axes of galaxies in filaments tend to be preferentially aligned with the directions of the filaments, while galaxies in sheets have their major axes preferentially aligned parallel to the plane of the sheets. The strength of this alignment signal is strongest for red, central galaxies, and in good agreement with that of dark matter halos in N-body simulations. This suggests that red, central galaxies are well aligned with their host halos, in quantitative agreement with previous studies based on the spatial distribution of satellite galaxies. There is a luminosity and mass dependence that brighter and more massive galaxies in filaments and sheets have stronger alignment signals. We also find that the orientation of galaxies is aligned with the eigenvector associated with the smallest eigenvalue of the tidal tensor. These observational results indicate that galaxy formation is affectedmore » by large-scale environments and strongly suggest that galaxies are aligned with each other over scales comparable to those of sheets and filaments in the cosmic web.« less

Authors:
;  [1];  [2];  [3];  [4]
  1. Key Laboratory for Research in Galaxies and Cosmology, Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, Nandan Road 80, Shanghai 200030 (China)
  2. Key Laboratory for Research in Galaxies and Cosmology, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026 (China)
  3. Purple Mountain Observatory, the Partner Group of MPI für Astronomie, 2 West Beijing Road, Nanjing 210008 (China)
  4. Department of Astronomy, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003-9305 (United States)
Publication Date:
OSTI Identifier:
22348437
Resource Type:
Journal Article
Journal Name:
Astrophysical Journal
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 779; Journal Issue: 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); Journal ID: ISSN 0004-637X
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
79 ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY; ALIGNMENT; COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS; COSMOLOGY; EIGENVALUES; FILAMENTS; GALAXIES; LUMINOSITY; MASS; NONLUMINOUS MATTER; SATELLITES; SIMULATION; SKY; SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION; UNIVERSE

Citation Formats

Zhang, Youcai, Yang, Xiaohu, Wang, Huiyuan, Wang, Lei, Mo, H. J., and Van den Bosch, Frank C., E-mail: yczhang@shao.ac.cn, E-mail: xyang@sjtu.edu.cn. Alignments of galaxies within cosmic filaments from SDSS DR7. United States: N. p., 2013. Web. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/779/2/160.
Zhang, Youcai, Yang, Xiaohu, Wang, Huiyuan, Wang, Lei, Mo, H. J., & Van den Bosch, Frank C., E-mail: yczhang@shao.ac.cn, E-mail: xyang@sjtu.edu.cn. Alignments of galaxies within cosmic filaments from SDSS DR7. United States. https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/779/2/160
Zhang, Youcai, Yang, Xiaohu, Wang, Huiyuan, Wang, Lei, Mo, H. J., and Van den Bosch, Frank C., E-mail: yczhang@shao.ac.cn, E-mail: xyang@sjtu.edu.cn. 2013. "Alignments of galaxies within cosmic filaments from SDSS DR7". United States. https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/779/2/160.
@article{osti_22348437,
title = {Alignments of galaxies within cosmic filaments from SDSS DR7},
author = {Zhang, Youcai and Yang, Xiaohu and Wang, Huiyuan and Wang, Lei and Mo, H. J. and Van den Bosch, Frank C., E-mail: yczhang@shao.ac.cn, E-mail: xyang@sjtu.edu.cn},
abstractNote = {Using a sample of galaxy groups selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7, we examine the alignment between the orientation of galaxies and their surrounding large-scale structure in the context of the cosmic web. The latter is quantified using the large-scale tidal field, reconstructed from the data using galaxy groups above a certain mass threshold. We find that the major axes of galaxies in filaments tend to be preferentially aligned with the directions of the filaments, while galaxies in sheets have their major axes preferentially aligned parallel to the plane of the sheets. The strength of this alignment signal is strongest for red, central galaxies, and in good agreement with that of dark matter halos in N-body simulations. This suggests that red, central galaxies are well aligned with their host halos, in quantitative agreement with previous studies based on the spatial distribution of satellite galaxies. There is a luminosity and mass dependence that brighter and more massive galaxies in filaments and sheets have stronger alignment signals. We also find that the orientation of galaxies is aligned with the eigenvector associated with the smallest eigenvalue of the tidal tensor. These observational results indicate that galaxy formation is affected by large-scale environments and strongly suggest that galaxies are aligned with each other over scales comparable to those of sheets and filaments in the cosmic web.},
doi = {10.1088/0004-637X/779/2/160},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/22348437}, journal = {Astrophysical Journal},
issn = {0004-637X},
number = 2,
volume = 779,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Dec 20 00:00:00 EST 2013},
month = {Fri Dec 20 00:00:00 EST 2013}
}