Galaxy spin direction distribution in HST and SDSS show similar large-scale asymmetry

Abstract

Several recent observations using large datasets of galaxies showed non-random distribution of the spin directions of spiral galaxies, even when the galaxies are too far from each other to have gravitational interaction. Here, a dataset of $\sim 8.7\cdot 10^3$ spiral galaxies imaged by Hubble Space Telescope is used to test and profile a possible asymmetry between galaxy spin directions. The asymmetry between galaxies with opposite spin directions is compared to the asymmetry of galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The two datasets contain different galaxies at different redshift ranges, and each dataset was annotated using a different annotation method. The results show that both datasets show a similar asymmetry in the COSMOS field, which is covered by both telescopes. Fitting the asymmetry of the galaxies to cosine dependence shows a dipole axis with probabilities of $\sim 2.8\sigma$ and $\sim 7.38\sigma$ in HST and SDSS, respectively. The most likely dipole axis identified in the HST galaxies is at $(\alpha =78^o,\delta =47^o)$, and is well within the $1\sigma$ error range compared to the location of the most likely dipole axis in the SDSS galaxies with $z>0.15$, identified at $(\alpha =71^o,\delta =61^o)$.

PASA, accepted

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Cited by in corpus (6)

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• New evidence and analysis of cosmological-scale asymmetry in galaxy spin directions
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• Reanalysis of the spin direction distribution of Galaxy Zoo SDSS spiral galaxies
• Large-scale asymmetry in the distribution of galaxy spin directions -- analysis and reproduction