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Register a new userAlignment between satellite and central galaxies in the SDSS DR7: dependence on large-scale environment
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Peng Wang
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The alignment between satellites and central galaxies has been studied in detail both in observational and theoretical works. The widely accepted fact is that the satellites preferentially reside along the major axis of their central galaxy. However, the origin and large-scale environment dependence of this alignment are still unknown. In an attempt to figure out those, we use data constructed from SDSS DR7 to investigate the large-scale environmental dependence of this alignment with emphasis on examining the alignments dependence on the colour of the central galaxy. We find a very strong large-scale environmental dependence of the satellite-central alignment in groups with blue centrals. Satellites of blue centrals in knots are preferentially located perpendicular to the major axis of the centrals, and the alignment angle decreases with environment namely when going from knots to voids. The alignment angle strongly depend on the ${}^{0.1}(g-r)$ colour of centrals. We suggest that the satellite-central alignment is the result of a competition between satellite accretion within large scale-structure and galaxy evolution inside host haloes. For groups containing red central galaxies, the satellite-central alignment is mainly determined by the evolution effect, while for blue central dominated groups, the effect of large-scale structure plays a more important role, especially in knots. Our results provide an explanation for how the satellite-central alignment forms within different large-scale environments. The perpendicular case in groups and knots with blue centrals may also provide insight into understanding similar polar arrangements such the formation of the Milky Way and Centaurus As satellite system.
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Using a sample of galaxies selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7 (SDSS DR7) and a catalog of bulge-disk decompositions, we study how the size distribution of galaxies depends on the intrinsic properties of galaxies, such as concentration, morphology, specific star formation rate (sSFR), and bulge fraction, and on the large-scale environments in the context of central/satellite decomposition, halo environment, the cosmic web: cluster, filament, sheet ~and void, as well as galaxy number density. We find that there is a strong dependence of the luminosity- or mass-size relation on the galaxy concentration, morphology, sSFR, and bulge fraction. Compared with late-type (spiral) galaxies, there is a clear trend of smaller sizes and steeper slope for early-type (elliptical) galaxies. Similarly, galaxies with high bulge fraction have smaller sizes and steeper slope than those with low bulge fraction. Fitting formula of the average luminosity- and mass-size relations are provided for galaxies of these different intrinsic properties. Examining galaxies in terms of their large scale environments, we find that the mass-size relation has some weak dependence on the halo mass and central/satellite segregation for galaxies within mass range $9.0le log M_{ast} le 10.5$, where satellites or galaxies in more massive halos have slightly smaller sizes than their counterparts. While the cosmic web and local number density dependence of the mass-size relation is almost negligible.
It has been shown, both in simulations and observationally, that the tidal field of a large galaxy can torque its satellites such that the major axis of satellite galaxies points towards their hosts. This so-called `shape alignment has been observed in isolated Milky Way-like galaxies but not in `Local Group-like pairs. In this study, we investigate the shape alignment of satellite galaxies in galaxy pairs similar to the Local Group identified in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 13 (SDSS DR13). By stacking tens of thousands of satellite galaxies around primary galaxy pairs, we find two statistically strong alignment signals. (1) The major axes of satellite galaxies located in the (projected) area between two primaries (the {it facing} region) tend to be perpendicular to the line connecting the satellite to its host (tangential alignment), while (2) the major axes of satellite galaxies located in regions away from the other host (the {it away} region) tend to be aligned with the line connecting the satellite to its host (radial alignment). These alignments are confirmed at $sim5sigma$ levels. The alignment signal increases with increasing primary brightness, decreasing pair separation, and decreasing satellite distance. The alignment signal is also found to be stronger in filamentary environments. These findings will shed light on understanding the mechanisms of how satellite galaxies are affected by the tidal field in galaxy pairs and will be useful for investigating galaxy intrinsic alignment in the analyses of weak gravitational lensing.
We study the alignment of galaxies relative to their local environment in SDSS-DR8 and, using these data, we discuss evolution scenarios for different types of galaxies. We defined a vector field of the direction of anisotropy of the local environment of galaxies. We summed the unit direction vectors of all close neighbours of a given galaxy in a particular way to estimate this field. We found the alignment angles between the spin axes of disc galaxies, or the minor axes of elliptical galaxies, and the direction of anisotropy. The distributions of cosines of these angles are compared to the random distributions to analyse the alignment of galaxies. Sab galaxies show perpendicular alignment relative to the direction of anisotropy in a sparse environment, for single galaxies and galaxies of low luminosity. Most of the parallel alignment of Scd galaxies comes from dense regions, from 2...3 member groups and from galaxies with low luminosity. The perpendicular alignment of S0 galaxies does not depend strongly on environmental density nor luminosity; it is detected for single and 2...3 member group galaxies, and for main galaxies of 4...10 member groups. The perpendicular alignment of elliptical galaxies is clearly detected for single galaxies and for members of < 11 member groups; the alignment increases with environmental density and luminosity. We confirm the existence of fossil tidally induced alignment of Sab galaxies at low z. The alignment of Scd galaxies can be explained via the infall of matter to filaments. S0 galaxies may have encountered relatively massive mergers along the direction of anisotropy. Major mergers along this direction can explain the alignment of elliptical galaxies. Less massive, but repeated mergers are possibly responsible for the formation of elliptical galaxies in sparser areas and for less luminous elliptical galaxies.
Using a sample of spiral galaxies selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7 (SDSS DR7) and Galaxy Zoo 2 (GZ2), we investigate the alignment of spin axes of spiral galaxies with their surrounding large scale structure, which is characterized by the large-scale tidal field reconstructed from the data using galaxy groups above a certain mass threshold. We find that the spin axes of only have weak tendency to be aligned with (or perpendicular to) the intermediate (or minor) axis of the local tidal tensor. The signal is the strongest in a cluster environment where all the three eigenvalues of the local tidal tensor are positive. Compared to the alignments between halo spins and local tidal field obtained in N-body simulations, the above observational results are in best agreement with those for the spins of inner regions of halos, suggesting that the disk material traces the angular momentum of dark matter halos in the inner regions.
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