Journal article
The SAMI Galaxy Survey: first detection of a transition in spin orientation with respect to cosmic filaments in the stellar kinematics of galaxies
- Abstract:
- We present the first detection of mass dependent galactic spin alignments with local cosmic filaments with >2σ confidence using IFS kinematics. The 3D network of cosmic filaments is reconstructed on Mpc scales across GAMA fields using the cosmic web extractor DisPerSe. We assign field galaxies from the SAMI survey to their nearest filament segment in 3D and estimate the degree of alignment between SAMI galaxies’ kinematic spin axis and their nearest filament in projection. Low-mass galaxies align their spin with their nearest filament while higher mass counterparts are more likely to display an orthogonal orientation. The stellar transition mass from the first trend to the second is bracketed between 1010.4 M⊙ and 1010.9 M⊙, with hints of an increase with filament scale. Consistent signals are found in the Horizon-AGN cosmological hydrodynamic simulation. This supports a scenario of early angular momentum build-up in vorticity rich quadrants around filaments at low stellar mass followed by progressive flip of spins orthogonal to the cosmic filaments through mergers at high stellar mass. Conversely, we show that dark-matter only simulations post-processed with a semi-analytic model treatment of galaxy formation struggles to reproduce this alignment signal. This suggests that gas physics is key in enhancing the galaxy-filament alignment.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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(Preview, Version of record, 6.6MB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1093/mnras/stz2860
Authors
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- Journal:
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society More from this journal
- Volume:
- 491
- Issue:
- 2
- Pages:
- 2864–2884
- Publication date:
- 2019-10-12
- Acceptance date:
- 2019-09-23
- DOI:
- EISSN:
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1365-2966
- ISSN:
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0035-87114
- Language:
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English
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
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pubs:1059924
- UUID:
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uuid:bc89f39d-e68c-4486-92a3-264ad0a51833
- Local pid:
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pubs:1059924
- Source identifiers:
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1059924
- Deposit date:
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2019-10-15
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Welker, C et al.
- Copyright date:
- 2019
- Rights statement:
- © 2019 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. This article is published and distributed under the terms of the Oxford University Press, Standard Journals Publication Model.
- Notes:
- This is the publisher's version of the article. The final version is available online from Oxford University Press at: https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stz2860
- Licence:
- Other
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