Galaxy Spin Alignment with Tidal Fields in the SDSS-IV MaNGA Survey

TL;DR

This study empirically confirms the correlation between galaxy spins and the cosmic tidal field, revealing mass-dependent alignment trends and environmental influences using extensive integral field spectroscopy data.

Contribution

It provides the first large-scale observational test of tidal torque theory, demonstrating galaxy spin alignments with the tidal field across different masses and environments.

Findings

Massive galaxies align with the intermediate tidal axis.

Low-mass galaxies show opposite alignment trends.

Environmental factors like overdensity influence alignment strength.

Abstract

The tidal torque theory (TTT) predicts that galaxy spins are correlated with the surrounding tidal field, reflecting how angular momentum is acquired during structure formation. We present a new observational test of this prediction using the final data release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory integral field spectroscopy survey, which enables direct spin measurements from stellar and ionized gas kinematics for a sample of 6325 disk galaxies. We utilize the three-dimensional tidal field reconstructed from the galaxy distribution, providing a physically defined reference frame for the analysis. We find that massive galaxies tend to align their spins parallel to the intermediate axis of the tidal field, consistent with the prediction of the TTT, while also showing a tendency to align perpendicular to the major axis. In contrast, low-mass galaxies exhibit the opposite trend, with a transition mass of $M_* \sim 10^{10}-10^{10.5}M_\odot$. No significant alignment is detected with respect to the minor axis across all stellar masses. We further examine the dependence on morphology and environment, finding that S0 and early-type spiral galaxies exhibit stronger alignment signals than late-type spirals. The alignment trend becomes particularly pronounced in regions of high tidal anisotropy and high overdensity. A mutual information analysis identifies these environmental factors as the dominant drivers of the observed trends. Our results provide new empirical evidence for the connection between galaxy spins and the cosmic tidal field.