2003/05/13 by M. Plionis, C. Benoist, Christophe Benoıst +4 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/376892
published as Astrophys.J. 594 (2003) 144-153 · 28 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ
arxiv created 2003/05/13 · openalex publication_date 2003/08/20 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
We present indications, based on a sample of 303 Abell clusters, for a relation between the dynamical state of clusters and the alignments of galaxy members with their parent cluster major-axis orientation as well as with the large-scale environment within which the clusters are embedded. The statistical results are complemented with a deep, wide-field case study of galaxy alignments in the cluster A521, which is characterized by multiple merging events (Maurogrdato et al.; Ferrari et al.) and whose galaxy members show a strong alignment signal out to ~5 h -1 Mpc. Our results show that galaxy alignments appear to be stronger the more dynamically young the cluster is, especially when found in high-density environments. This relation complements the recently found "cluster substructure-alignment connection" (Plionis & Basilakos) by which dynamically young clusters, found in high-density environments, show stronger cluster-cluster alignments.