Abstract
The directions of the galaxy angular momenta can be predicted from the initial conditions of the early Universe through the tidal torque. In simulations, these directions are well preserved through cosmic time, consistent with expectations of angular momentum conservation. We find evidence, statistically significant at ~2.7σ, of correlation between observed oriented directions of galaxy angular momentum vectors and their predictions based on the initial density field reconstructed from the positions of Sloan Digital Sky Survey galaxies. This study presents evidence for a correlation between directions of galaxy angular momenta and cosmic initial conditions, and opens a way to use measurements of galaxy spins to probe fundamental physics in the early Universe.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
$29.99 / 30 days
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 digital issues and online access to articles
$119.00 per year
only $9.92 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
Most of the data used in this work is public and can be obtained from https://skyserver.sdss.org/CasJobs/, https://datacentral.org.au/services/download/ and through Marvin (https://www.sdss.org/dr15/manga/marvin/). The resulting catalogue of galaxy spins as measured from data and as reconstructed from the ELUCID initial conditions (for three different smoothing scales) can be downloaded from https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4451358. The source data for Figs. 3–5 can be obtained at the same address.
Code availability
The codes used in this study are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.
Change history
08 March 2021
A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-021-01340-0
References
Huchra, J., Davis, M., Latham, D. & Tonry, J. X-ray spectra of active galactic nuclei. Astrophys. J. Suppl. Ser. 52, 89–119 (1983).
Colless, M. et al. The 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey: spectra and redshifts. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 328, 1039–1063 (2001).
York, D. G. et al. The Sloan Digital Sky Survey: technical summary. Astron. J. 120, 1579–1587 (2000).
Yu, H.-R., Pen, U.-L. & Wang, X. Parity-odd neutrino torque detection. Phys. Rev. D 99, 123532 (2019).
Yu, H.-R. et al. Probing primordial chirality with galaxy spins. Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 101302 (2020).
Schmidt, F., Chisari, N. E. & Dvorkin, C. Imprint of inflation on galaxy shape correlations. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 1510, 032 (2015).
Biagetti, M. & Orlando, G. Primordial gravitational waves from galaxy intrinsic alignments. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 07, 005 (2020).
Jasche, J. & Wandelt, B. D. Bayesian physical reconstruction of initial conditions from large-scale structure surveys. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 432, 894–913 (2013).
Wang, H., Mo, H. J., Yang, X., Jing, Y. P. & Lin, W. P. ELUCID—exploring the local universe with the reconstructed initial density field. I. Hamiltonian Markov chain Monte Carlo method with particle mesh dynamics. Astrophys. J. 794, 94 (2014).
Zhu, H.-M., Yu, Y., Pen, U.-L., Chen, X. & Yu, H.-R. Nonlinear reconstruction. Phys. Rev. D 96, 123502 (2017).
Schmittfull, M., Baldauf, T. & Zaldarriaga, M. Iterative initial condition reconstruction. Phys. Rev. D 96, 023505 (2017).
Hada, R. & Eisenstein, D. J. An iterative reconstruction of cosmological initial density fields. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 478, 1866–1874 (2018).
Zhu, H.-M., White, M., Ferraro, S. & Schaan, E. Reconstruction with velocities. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 494, 4244–4254 (2020).
Lee, J. & Pen, U.-L. Galaxy spin statistics and spin-density correlation. Astrophys. J. 555, 106–124 (2001).
Lee, J. & Pen, U.-L. Cosmic shear from galaxy spins. Astrophys. J. 532, L5–L8 (2000).
Kirk, D. et al. Galaxy alignments: observations and impact on cosmology. Space Sci. Rev. 193, 139–211 (2015).
Peebles, P. Origin of the angular momentum of galaxies. Astrophys. J. 155, 393–401 (1969).
Doroshkevich, A. G. Spatial structure of perturbations and origin of galactic rotation in fluctuation theory. Astrophysics 6, 320–330 (1970).
White, S. D. M. Angular momentum growth in protogalaxies. Astrophys. J. 286, 38–41 (1984).
Porciani, C., Dekel, A. & Hoffman, Y. Testing tidal-torque theory—I. Spin amplitude and direction. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 332, 325–338 (2002).
Porciani, C., Dekel, A. & Hoffman, Y. Testing tidal-torque theory—2. Alignment of inertia and shear and the characteristics of proto-haloes. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 332, 339–351 (2002).
Schaefer, B. M. Review: galactic angular momenta and angular momentum correlations in the cosmological large-scale structure. Int. J. Mod. Phys. D. 18, 173–222 (2009).
Teklu, A. F. et al. Connecting angular momentum and galactic dynamics: the complex interplay between spin, mass, and morphology. Astrophys. J. 812, 29 (2015).
Jiang, F. et al. Is the dark-matter halo spin a predictor of galaxy spin and size? Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 488, 4801–4815 (2019).
Jones, B. J., van de Weygaert, R. & Aragon-Calvo, M. A. Fossil evidence for spin alignment of SDSS galaxies in filaments. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 408, 897–918 (2010).
Krolewski, A. et al. Alignment between filaments and galaxy spins from the MaNGA integral-field survey. Astrophys. J. 876, 52 (2019).
Welker, C. et al. The SAMI galaxy survey: first detection of a transition in spin orientation with respect to cosmic filaments in the stellar kinematics of galaxies. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 491, 2864–2884 (2020).
Codis, S., Pichon, C. & Pogosyan, D. Spin alignments within the cosmic web: a theory of constrained tidal torques near filaments. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 452, 3369–3393 (2015).
Wang, H. et al. ELUCID—exploring the local universe with reconstructed initial density field. III. Constrained simulation in the SDSS volume. Astrophys. J. 831, 164 (2016).
Lintott, C. J. et al. Galaxy Zoo: morphologies derived from visual inspection of galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 389, 1179–1189 (2008).
Bundy, K. et al. Overview of the SDSS-IV MaNGA survey: mapping nearby galaxies at Apache Point Observatory. Astrophys. J. 798, 7 (2015).
Scott, N. et al. The SAMI galaxy survey: data release two with absorption-line physics value-added products. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 481, 2299–2319 (2018).
Land, K. et al. Galaxy Zoo: the large-scale spin statistics of spiral galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 388, 1686–1692 (2008).
Levi, M. et al. The DESI experiment, a whitepaper for Snowmass 2013. Preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/1308.0847 (2013).
Bryant, J. J. et al. Hector: a new massively multiplexed IFU instrument for the Anglo–Australian Telescope. Proc. Soc. Photogr. Instrum. Eng. 9908, 99081F (2016).
Aragon-Calvo, M. A., van de Weygaert, R., Jones, B. J. & van der Hulst, J. Spin alignment of dark matter haloes in filaments and walls. Astrophys. J. Lett. 655, L5–L8 (2007).
Hahn, O., Carollo, C., Porciani, C. & Dekel, A. The evolution of dark matter halo properties in clusters, filaments, sheets and voids. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 381, 41–51 (2007).
Codis, S. et al. Connecting the cosmic web to the spin of dark halos: implications for galaxy formation. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 427, 3320–3336 (2012).
Bett, P. E. & Frenk, C. S. Spin flips—I. Evolution of the angular momentum orientation of Milky Way-mass dark matter haloes. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 420, 3324–3333 (2012).
Bett, P. E. & Frenk, C. S. Spin flips—II. Evolution of dark matter halo spin orientation, and its correlation with major mergers. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 461, 1338–1355 (2016).
Tempel, E. & Libeskind, N. I. Galaxy spin alignment in filaments and sheets: observational evidence. Astrophys. J. Lett. 775, L42 (2013).
Veena, P. G. et al. The cosmic ballet: spin and shape alignments of haloes in the cosmic web. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 481, 414–438 (2018).
Ganeshaiah Veena, P., Cautun, M., Tempel, E., van de Weygaert, R. & Frenk, C. S. The cosmic ballet II: spin alignment of galaxies and haloes with large-scale filaments in the EAGLE simulation. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 487, 1607–1625 (2019).
Wang, P., Guo, Q., Kang, X. & Libeskind, N. I. The spin alignment of galaxies with the large-scale tidal field in hydrodynamic simulations. Astrophys. J. 866, 138 (2018).
Yang, X. et al. Galaxy groups in the SDSS DR4. I. The catalogue and basic properties. Astrophys. J. 671, 153–170 (2007).
Pasha, I. I. & Smirnov, M. A. On the direction of rotation of the spirals in galaxies. Astrophys. Space Sci. 86, 215–224 (1982).
Blanton, M. R. et al. Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV: mapping the Milky Way, nearby galaxies and the distant Universe. Astron. J. 154, 28 (2017).
Aguado, D. S. et al. The fifteenth data release of the Sloan Digital Sky Surveys: first release of MaNGA-derived quantities, data visualization tools, and stellar library. Astrophys. J. Suppl. Ser. 240, 23 (2019).
Cherinka, B. et al. Marvin: a tool kit for streamlined access and visualization of the SDSS-IV MaNGA data set. Astrophys. J. 158, 74 (2019).
Bryant, J. J. et al. The SAMI galaxy survey: instrument specification and target selection. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 447, 2857–2879 (2015).
Acknowledgements
We thank H. Wang for providing the catalogue of ELUCID galaxy groups and useful discussions. We thank C. Pichon and M. Neyrinck for numerous very useful suggestions during the peer review process. We thank J. Dubinski for proofreading our manuscript and useful comments. P.M., H.-R.Y. and U.-L.P. were supported by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) grant CITA 490888. H.-R.Y. additionally acknowledges support from National Natural Science Foundation of China grant 11903021. U.-L.P. received additional support from Ontario Research Fund-research Excellence Program grant RE09-024, NSERC grants RGPIN-2019-067, 523638-201, CRDPJ 523638-2, Canadian Institute for Advanced Research grants FS21-146 and APPT, Canadian Foundation for Innovation grant IOF-33526, Simons Foundation grant 568354, Thoth Technology Inc., and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
All authors contributed to the work presented in this paper. U.-L.P., P.M. and H.-R.Y. initiated the project. H.-R.Y. and P.M. wrote the computer codes used in the study. P.M. and Y.X. analysed the data. P.M., H.-R.Y. and U.-L.P. wrote the manuscript. All authors participated in scientific discussions that determined the course of the project and influenced the final contents and scope of this manuscript.
Corresponding authors
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Additional information
Peer review information Nature Astronomy thanks Mark Neyrinck, Rien van de Weijgaert and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.
Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Motloch, P., Yu, HR., Pen, UL. et al. An observed correlation between galaxy spins and initial conditions. Nat Astron 5, 283–288 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-020-01262-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-020-01262-3
This article is cited by
-
Observational assessment of the viability of de Sitter Gödel de Sitter phase transition
General Relativity and Gravitation (2022)
-
New evidence and analysis of cosmological-scale asymmetry in galaxy spin directions
Journal of Astrophysics and Astronomy (2022)
-
Possible observational evidence for cosmic filament spin
Nature Astronomy (2021)