Caught in the rhythm: how satellites settle into a plane around their central galaxy

Abstract

Using the cosmological hydrodynamics simulation Horizon-AGN, we investigate the spatial distribution of satellite galaxies relative to their central counterpart in the redshift range between 0.3 and 0.8. We find that, on average, these satellites tend to be located on the galactic plane of the central object. This effect is detected for central galaxies with a stellar mass larger than 10^10 solar masses and found to be strongest for red passive galaxies, while blue galaxies exhibit a weaker trend. For galaxies with a minor axis parallel to the direction of the nearest filament, we find that the coplanarity is stronger in the vicinity of the central galaxy, and decreases when moving towards the outskirts of the host halo. By contrast, the spatial distribution of satellite galaxies relative to their closest filament follows the opposite trend: their tendency to align with them dominates at large distances from the central galaxy, and fades away in its vicinity. Relying on mock catalogs of galaxies in that redshift range, we show that massive red centrals with a spin perpendicular to their filament also have corotating satellites well aligned with both the galactic plane and the filament. On the other hand, lower-mass blue centrals with a spin parallel to their filament have satellites flowing straight along this filament, and hence orthogonally to their galactic plane. The orbit of these satellites is then progressively bent towards a better alignment with the galactic plane as they penetrate the central region of their host halo. The kinematics previously described are consistent with satellite infall and spin build-up via quasi-polar flows, followed by a re-orientation of the spin of massive red galaxies through mergers.