Clues on the origin of galactic angular momentum from looking at galaxy pairs


Por: Cervantes-Sodi B., Hernandez X., Park C.

Publicada: 1 mar 2010
Resumen:
We search for correlations between the spins in pairs of spiral galaxies, to study if the angular momentum gain for each galaxy was the result of tidal torques imprinted by the same tidal field. To perform our study we made use of a sample of galaxy pairs identified using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We find a weak, but statistically significant correlation between the spin magnitudes of neighbouring galaxies, but no clear alignment between their orientations. We show that events such as interactions with close neighbours play an important role in the value of the spin for the final configuration, as we find that these interactions tend to reduce the value of the lambda spin parameter of late-type galaxies considerably, with dependence on the morphology of the neighbour. This implies that the original tidal field for each pair could have been similar, but the redistribution of angular momentum at later stages of evolution is important.

Filiaciones:
Cervantes-Sodi B.:
 Univ Nacl Autonoma Mexico, Inst Astron, Mexico City 04510, DF, Mexico

Hernandez X.:
 Univ Nacl Autonoma Mexico, Inst Astron, Mexico City 04510, DF, Mexico

Park C.:
 Korea Institute for Advanced Study, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul 130-722, South Korea
ISSN: 00358711
Editorial
WILEY-BLACKWELL, COMMERCE PLACE, 350 MAIN ST, MALDEN 02148, MA USA, Reino Unido
Tipo de documento: Article
Volumen: 402 Número: 3
Páginas: 1807-1815
WOS Id: 000274483500033
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