The Nearest Neighbor Alignment of Cluster X‐Ray Isophotes

2001/02/28 by Scott W. Chambers, Adrian L. Melott, Christopher J. Miller · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Artificial intelligence #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics #Cluster (spacecraft) #Computer science #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Galaxy cluster #Gaussian #Physics #ROSAT #Redshift #astro-ph #k-nearest neighbors algorithm

paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/324278

Moderate revisions, including additional test for systematic error. Conclusions unchanged. Accepted for publication in ApJ

arxiv created 2001/09/10 · openalex publication_date 2002/02/01 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

We examine the orientations of rich galaxy cluster X-ray isophotes with respect to their rich nearest neighbors using existing samples of Abell cluster position angles measured from Einstein and ROSAT observations. We study a merged subset of these samples using updated and improved positions and redshifts for Abell/ACO clusters. We find high confidence for alignment, which increases as nearest neighbor distance is restricted. We conclude that there is a strong alignment signal in all this data, consistent with gravitational instability acting on Gaussian perturbation.

Citations

• The Shape of the First Collapsed Objects
• Projection, Spatial Correlations, and Anisotropies in a Large and Complete Sample of Abell Clusters
• The Ellipticity and Orientation of Clusters of Galaxies inN‐Body Experiments
• Cluster winds blow along supercluster axes

Cited by

• The intrinsic alignment of galaxies and its impact on weak gravitational lensing in an era of precision cosmology
• Las Campanas Loose Groups in the supercluster-void network