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

Abstract

We search for correlations between the spin in pairs of spiral galaxies, to study if the angular momentum gain for each galaxy was the result of tidal torques imprint 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 magnitude of neighbouring galaxies, but no clear alignment between their orientation. 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 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.

10 pages, 4 figures, 1 table. Replaced to match the version accepted for publication in MNRAS

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• The Cosmic Ballet II: Spin alignment of galaxies and haloes with large-scale filaments in the EAGLE simulation
• Spin alignments of spiral galaxies within the large-scale structure from SDSS DR7
• KiDS+GAMA: Intrinsic alignment model constraints for current and future weak lensing cosmology
• Dependence of Barred Galaxy Fraction on Galaxy Properties and Environment
• Density profile slope in Dwarfs and environment
• Interacting galaxies: co-rotating and counter-rotating systems with tidal tails
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• Living with Neighbors. III. The Origin of the Spin$-$Orbit Alignment of Galaxy Pairs: A Neighbor versus the Large-scale Structure
• Gravitational Potential Environment of Galaxies: I. Simulation
• On the alignment of haloes, filaments and magnetic fields in the simulated cosmic web
• The Spin Alignments in Galaxy Pairs as a Test of Bouncing Coupled Dark Energy
• Living with Neighbors. IV. Dissecting the Spin$-$Orbit Alignment of Dark Matter Halos: Interacting Neighbors and the Local Large-scale Structure
• The spin of late-type galaxies at redshifts z < 1.2
• Quantifying galactic morphological transformations in the cluster environment
• Detection of the Intrinsic Spin Alignments in Isolated Spiral Pairs
• Living with Neighbors. V. Better-aligned Spiral+Spiral Galaxy Pairs Show Stronger Star Formation
• Origin and evolution of galactic spin from looking at galaxy pairs
• Spin Alignment in Analogues of The Local Sheet