Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Dec 2007
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007aas...211.0901a&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #211, #09.01; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 39, p.741
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
1
Scientific paper
The locations of satellite galaxies relative to the symmetry axes of host galaxies may hold important clues to the formation history of large galaxies, as well as provide information about the sizes and shapes of dark matter halos. When this question was first addressed by Holmberg (1969), the satellite galaxies around prominent spiral galaxies were found to be preferentially close to the minor axes of their hosts, an effect known as the "Holmberg effect". In contrast to this, modern redshift surveys have shown that in general the satellites of large, isolated host galaxies tend to be found preferentially near the major axes of their hosts. The degree and sense of the anisotropy, however, depends on the color, morphology, and mass of the host. Here we investigate the locations of the satellites of isolated host galaxies in the observed universe using satellites obtained from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and we compare our results to the locations of satellites in a simulation of a LCDM universe using a mock redshift survey of the Millennium Run simulation. We find that the satellites of red SDSS hosts are located preferentially near the major axes of their hosts and show a very pronounced anisotropy. The satellites of blue SDSS hosts have locations that are consistent with being isotropic. The two distributions are genuinely different; at 99.9% confidence they are inconsistent with having been drawn from the same parent distribution. In addition, and in contrast to previous studies, we find that the degree of anisotropy is a strong function of the mass of the host. Overall the data from both the observations and the simulation agree on the general trend that satellites of red, massive, and quiescent hosts are distributed much more anisotropically than satellites of blue, low mass hosts with active star formation.
Agustsson Ingolfur
Brainerd Tereasa G.
No associations
LandOfFree
Anisotropic Locations of Satellite Galaxies does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with Anisotropic Locations of Satellite Galaxies, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Anisotropic Locations of Satellite Galaxies will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1474189