A re-assessment of the nearest neighbour alignment of the X-ray isophotes of galaxy clusters
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Date
2006
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Oxford University Press
Abstract
Alignment is defined as the tendency of the distribution of pointing angles between the major
axes of clusters and their nearest neighbours to be more concentrated towards small values
for small nearest neighbour distances, whereas the distribution is expected to be uniform over
all angles at larger distances. Conflicting pronouncements on the reality of this effect have
been published in the astronomy literature. A re-assessment of the evidence for alignment is
presented, based on three recently published X-ray data sets. We find that whereas there is
evidence for alignment, it is not as convincing as previously claimed. In particular, the scale
to which the effect has been claimed to extend seems to have been severely overstated.
Description
Keywords
Methods: statistical, Galaxies: clusters, general, Galaxies: formation.
Citation
Koen, C. & Lombard, F. (2006). A re-assessment of the nearest neighbour alignment of the X-ray isophotes of galaxy clusters. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 370(3):1324–1328