[astro-ph/0511680] Detection of the effect of cosmological large-scale structure on the orientation of galaxies

Authors:  Ignacio Trujillo, Conrado Carretero, Santiago G. Patiri
Abstract:  Galaxies are not distributed randomly throughout space but are instead arranged in an intricate "cosmic web" of filaments and walls surrounding bubble-like voids. Most of these large-scale features are successfully reproduced in the "concordance" cosmological model, which also accounts for at least some of the properties of individual galaxies. On the other hand, there is still no compelling observational evidence of a link between the structure of the cosmic web and how galaxies form within it. Such a connection is expected on the basis of our understanding of the origin of galaxy angular momentum. The spin of spiral galaxies is believed to be generated by tidal torques operating in the early Universe on the primordial material destined to form a galaxy. A generic prediction of this theory is the existence of local correlations between galaxy rotation axes and the surrounding matter field: disk galaxies should be highly inclined relative to the plane defined by the large-scale structure surrounding them. Here we show that these alignments do indeed exist: spiral galaxies located on the shells of the largest cosmic voids have rotation axes that lie preferentially on the void surface. This is the first time an observational link between large-scale structure and the properties of individual galaxies has been definitively established.
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Pirin Erdogdu
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Joined: December 17 2004
Affiliation: UCL

[astro-ph/0511680] Detection of the effect of cosmological l

Post by Pirin Erdogdu » November 30 2005

This paper looks like an original piece of work.
It investigates the orientations of the rotation axes of the spiral galaxies
on the edge of big voids. The authors show that the rotation axes of galaxies lie preferentially on the sheets and claim that they observed a clear link between the large scale structure and the formation of galaxies.
It would be great to hear comments on this paper.

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