A new spin on disks of satellite galaxies

Abstract

We investigate the angular and kinematic distributions of satellite galaxies around a large sample of bright isolated primaries in the spectroscopic and photometric catalogues of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). We detect significant anisotropy in the spatial distribution of satellites. To test whether this anisotropy could be related to the rotating disks of satellites recently found by Ibata et al. in a sample of SDSS galaxies, we repeat and extend their analysis. Ibata et al. found an excess of satellites on opposite sides of their primaries having anticorrelated radial velocities. We find that this excess is sensitive to small changes in the sample selection criteria which can greatly reduce its significance. In addition, we find no evidence for correspondingly correlated velocities for satellites observed on the same side of their primaries, which would be expected for rotating disks of satellites. We conclude that the detection of coherent rotation in the satellite population in current observational samples is not robust. We compare our data to the $\Lambda$CDM Millennium simulations populated with galaxies according to the semi-analytic model of Guo et al. We find excellent agreement with the spatial distribution of satellites in the SDSS data and the lack of a strong signal from coherent rotation.

13 pages, 12 figures, accepted version, MNRAS

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• Evolution of galactic planes of satellites in the EAGLE simulation
• The Role of Baryons in Creating Statistically Significant Planes of Satellites around Milky Way-Mass Galaxies
• Eppur si muove: Positional and kinematic correlations of satellite pairs in the low Z universe
• The tangential velocity excess of the Milky Way satellites
• On the Stability of Satellite Planes I: Effects of Mass, Velocity, Halo Shape and Alignment
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• The stellar mass in and around isolated central galaxies: connections to the total mass distribution through galaxy-galaxy lensing in the Hyper Suprime-Cam survey
• The potential role of NGC 205 in generating Andromeda's vast thin co-rotating plane of satellite galaxies
• The Origin of Lopsided Satellite Galaxy Distribution in Galaxy Pairs
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• On the origin of the asymmetric dwarf galaxy distribution around Andromeda
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• A Study of the Properties and Dynamics of the Disk of Satellites in a Milky-Way-like Galaxy System
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