The lopsided distribution of satellites of isolated central galaxies [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2104.12787


Satellites are not randomly distributed around their central galaxies but show polar and planar structures. In this paper, we investigate the axis-asymmetry or lopsidedness of satellite galaxy distributions around isolated galaxies in a hydrodynamic cosmological simulation. We find a statistically significant lopsided signal by studying the angular distribution of the satellite galaxies’ projected positions around isolated central galaxies in a two-dimensional plane. The signal is dependent on galaxy mass, color and large-scale environment. Satellites that inhabit low-mass blue hosts, or located further from the hosts show the most lopsided signal. Galaxy systems with massive neighbors exhibit stronger lopsidedness. This satellite axis-asymmetry signal also decreases as the universe evolves. Our findings are in agreement with recent observational results, and they provide a useful perspective for studying galaxy evolution, especially on the satellite accretion, internal evolution and interaction with the cosmic large-scale structure.

Read this paper on arXiv…

P. Wang, N. Libeskind, M. Pawlowski, et. al.
Wed, 28 Apr 21
41/60

Comments: 13 pages, 8 figures, accepted by ApJ