Observation has not yet determined whether the distribution of spin vectors of galaxies is truly random. It is unclear whether is there any large-scale symmetry-breaking in the distribution of the vorticity field in the universe. Here, we present a formulation to evaluate the dipole component D max of the observed spin distribution, whose statistical significance σ D can be calibrated by the expected amplitude for 3D random walk (random flight) simulations. We apply this formulation to evaluate the dipole component in the distribution of Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) spirals. Shamir published a catalog of spiral galaxies from the SDSS DR8, classifying them with his pattern recognition tool into clockwise and counterclockwise (Z-spiral and S-spiral, respectively). He found significant photometric asymmetry in their distribution. We have confirmed that this sample provides dipole asymmetry up to a level of σ D = 4.00. However, we also found that the catalog contains a significant number of multiple entries of the same galaxies. After removing the duplicated entries, the number of samples shrunk considerably to 45%. The actual dipole asymmetry observed for the “cleaned” catalog is quite modest, σ D = 0.29. We conclude that SDSS data alone do not support the presence of a large-scale symmetry-breaking in the spin vector distribution of galaxies in the local universe. The data are compatible with a random distribution.
Whether the spiral structure of galaxies is trailing or leading has been a subject of debate. We present a new spin parity catalog of 146 spiral galaxies that lists the following three pieces of information: whether the spiral structure observed on the sky is S-wise or Z-wise; which side of the minor axis of the galaxy is darker and redder, based on examination of Pan-STARRS and/or ESO/DSS2 red image archives, and which side of the major axis of the galaxy is approaching to us based on the published literature. This paper confirms that all of the spiral galaxies in the catalog show a consistent relationship among these three parameters, without any confirmed counterexamples, that supports the generally accepted interpretation that all the spiral galaxies are trailing and that the darker/redder side of the galactic disk is closer to us. Although the results of this paper may not be surprising, they provide a rationale for analyzing the S/Z winding distribution of spiral galaxies, using the large and uniform image data bases available now and in the near future, to study the spin vorticity distribution of galaxies in order to constrain the formation scenarios of galaxies and the large-scale structure of the Universe.
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