Orientation of galaxies in structures

Elena Panko, Paulina Piwowarska, Jolanta Godlowska, Wlodzimierz Godlowski, Piotr Flin

Published 2014-04-01Version 1

The investigation of the orientation of galaxies is a standard test concerning to scenarios of galaxy formation, because different theories of galaxy formation make various predictions regarding to the angular momentum of galaxies. The new method of analysis of the alignment of galaxies in clusters was proposed in the paper Godlowski (2012) and now is improved. We analyzed the distribution of the position angles of the galaxy major axes, as well as the distribution of two angles describing the spatial orientation of galaxy plane, which gives the information about galaxy angular momenta. We discuss the orientation of galaxies in groups and clusters of galaxies. The results show the dependence of the alignment with respect to clusters richness. The implications of the results for theories of galaxy formation are discussed as well.