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J. E. Cabanela, J. M. Dickey (U. Minnesota)
We use HI observations made using with the upgraded Arecibo 305M Telescope in August 1998 to obtain spin vectors for 54 edge-on galaxies in the Pisces-Perseus Supercluster. This represents the largest known sample of accurately measured spin vectors for galaxies outside the Local Supercluster. Analysis of the spin vector distribution was performed using the Kuiper statistic (a two-sided variant of the Kolmogorov-Smirnov statistic) to compare the observed spin vector distribution with Monte Carlo simulations.
Our initial analysis indicates that there is very strong evidence for spin vector alignments of galaxies with neighboring galaxies. We can rule out random galaxy spin vector orientations at the 99.5% confidence level. Galaxy alignments of this variety are likely an artifact of the history of angular momentum exchange between galaxies. This indicates that the alignment process is an ongoing, evolutionary effect of galaxy interactions.
We are also investigating possible alignments with the local large-scale structure as seen by Cabanela & Aldering [1998].
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: juan@aps.umn.edu