The Origin of Lopsided Satellite Galaxy Distribution in Galaxy Pairs

Abstract

It is well known that satellite galaxies are not isotropically distributed among their host galaxies as suggested by most interpretations of the $\Lambda$CDM model. One type of anisotropy recently detected in the SDSS (and seen when examining the distribution of satellites in the Local Group and in the Centaurus group) is a tendency to be so-called "lopsided". Namely, in pairs of galaxies (like Andromeda and the Milky Way) the satellites are more likely to inhabit the region in between the pair, rather than on opposing sides. Although recent studies found a similar set up when comparing pairs of galaxies in $\Lambda$CDM simulations indicating that such a set up is not inconsistent with $\Lambda$CDM, the origin has yet to be explained. Here we examine the origin of such lopsided setups by first identifying such distributions in pairs of galaxies in numerical cosmological simulations, and then tracking back the orbital trajectories of satellites (which at $z=0$ display the effect). We report two main results: first, the lopsided distribution was stronger in the past and weakens towards $z=0$. Second, the weakening of the signal is due to the interaction of satellite galaxies with the pair. Finally, we show that the $z=0$ signal is driven primarily by satellites that are on first approach, who have yet to experience a "flyby". This suggests that the signal seen in the observations is also dominated by dynamically young accretion events.

10 pages, 11 figures

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Cited by in corpus (8)

• Lopsided Satellite Distributions around Isolated Host Galaxies
• The lopsided distribution of satellites of isolated central galaxies
• New dwarf galaxy candidates in the sphere of influence of the Sombrero galaxy
• Living with Neighbors. III. The Origin of the Spin$-$Orbit Alignment of Galaxy Pairs: A Neighbor versus the Large-scale Structure
• Lopsided Satellite Distributions around Isolated Host Galaxies in a LCDM Universe
• On the origin of the asymmetric dwarf galaxy distribution around Andromeda
• Lopsided distribution of MATLAS and ELVES dwarf satellite systems around isolated host galaxies
• Andromeda's asymmetric satellite system as a challenge to cold dark matter cosmology