Spin Alignment in Analogues of The Local Sheet

TL;DR

This study investigates how local galaxy environments, especially interacting pairs, influence galaxy spin orientations, supporting tidal torque theory predictions and revealing environmental effects on galaxy angular momentum.

Contribution

The paper identifies local analogues of the Local Sheet and demonstrates that interacting galaxy pairs can significantly influence neighboring galaxy spin directions.

Findings

Galaxies in analogues show distinct axis ratio distributions from controls.

Interacting pairs impact the spin orientations of nearby galaxies.

Results support environmental influence on galaxy angular momentum.

Abstract

Tidal torque theory and simulations of large scale structure predict spin vectors of massive galaxies should be coplanar with sheets in the cosmic web. Recently demonstrated, the giants (K$_{s}$ $\leq$ -22.5 mag) in the Local Volume beyond the Local Sheet have spin vectors directed close to the plane of the Local Supercluster, supporting the predictions of Tidal Torque Theory. However, the giants in the Local Sheet encircling the Local Group display a distinctly different arrangement, suggesting that the mass asymmetry of the Local Group or its progenitor torqued them from their primordial spin directions. To investigate the origin of the spin alignment of giants locally, analogues of the Local Sheet were identified in the SDSS DR9. Similar to the Local Sheet, analogues have an interacting pair of disk galaxies isolated from the remaining sheet members. Modified sheets in which there is no interacting pair of disk galaxies were identified as a control sample. Galaxies in face-on control sheets do not display axis ratios predominantly weighted toward low values, contrary to the expectation of tidal torque theory. For face-on and edge-on sheets, the distribution of axis ratios for galaxies in analogues is distinct from that in controls with a confidence of 97.6 $\%$ $\&$ 96.9$\%$, respectively. This corroborates the hypothesis that an interacting pair can affect spin directions of neighbouring galaxies.