The Galaxy Alignment Effect in Abell 1689: Evolution, Radial, and Luminosity Dependence
De Propris, Roberto; Bañados, Eduardo; West, Michael J.; Hung, Li-Wei
United States, Chile
Abstract
We measure alignments on scales of 1 Mpc h -1 71 for galaxies in Abell 1689 (z = 0.18) from an existing Hubble Space Telescope mosaic. We find evidence of galaxy alignment in the inner 500 h -1 71 kpc. The alignment appears to be stronger toward the center and is mostly present among the fainter galaxies, while bright galaxies are unaligned. This is consistent with a model where alignments originate from tidal locking.