High-order 3D Voronoi tessellation for identifying Isolated galaxies, Pairs and Triplets

TL;DR

This paper introduces a high-order 3D Voronoi tessellation method to identify isolated galaxies, pairs, and triplets, revealing luminosity segregation and dark matter content differences across environments.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel geometric approach using high-order 3D Voronoi tessellation for identifying small galaxy groups and isolated systems in large surveys.

Findings

Luminosity segregation observed in small galaxy groups.

Median mass-to-luminosity ratios differ among systems.

Denser environments have higher velocities and mass-to-luminosity ratios.

Abstract

Geometric method based on the high-order 3D Voronoi tessellation is proposed for identifying the single galaxies, pairs and triplets. This approach allows to select small galaxy groups and isolated galaxies in different environment and find the isolated systems. The volume-limited sample of galaxies from the SDSS DR5 spectroscopic survey was used. We conclude that in such small groups as pairs and triplets the segregation by luminosity is clearly observed: galaxies in the isolated pairs and triplets are on average two times more luminous than isolated galaxies. We consider the dark matter content in different systems. The median values of mass-to-luminosity ratio are 12 M_sol/L_sol for the isolated pairs and 44 M_sol/L_sol for the isolated triplets; 7 (8) M_sol/L_sol for the most compact pairs (triplets). We found also that systems in the denser environment have greater rms velocity and mass-to-luminosity ratio.