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arXiv · 1401.7331

Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA): Fine filaments of galaxies detected within voids

Mehmet Alpaslan·Aaron S. G. Robotham·Danail Obreschkow·Samantha Penny·Simon Driver·Peder Norberg·Sarah Brough·Michael Brown·Michelle Cluver·Benne Holwerda·Andrew M. Hopkins·Eelco van Kampen·Lee S. Kelvin·Maritza A. Lara-Lopez·Jochen Liske·Jon Loveday·Smriti Mahajan·Kevin Pimbblet
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Abstract

Based on data from the Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey, we report on the discovery of structures that we refer to as `tendrils' of galaxies: coherent, thin chains of galaxies that are rooted in filaments and terminate in neighbouring filaments or voids. On average, tendrils contain 6 galaxies and span 10 $h^{-1}$ Mpc. We use the so-called line correlation function to prove that tendrils represent real structures rather than accidental alignments. We show that voids found in the SDSS-DR7 survey that overlap with GAMA regions contain a large number of galaxies, primarily belonging to tendrils. This implies that void sizes are strongly dependent on the number density and sensitivity limits of a survey. We caution that galaxies in low density regions, that may be defined as `void galaxies,' will have local galaxy number densities that depend on such observational limits and are likely higher than can be directly measured.

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Mehmet Alpaslan, Aaron S. G. Robotham, Danail Obreschkow, Samantha Penny, Simon Driver, Peder Norberg, Sarah Brough, Michael Brown, Michelle Cluver, Benne Holwerda, Andrew M. Hopkins, Eelco van Kampen, Lee S. Kelvin, Maritza A. Lara-Lopez, Jochen Liske, Jon Loveday, Smriti Mahajan, Kevin Pimbblet. 2014-01-28. Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA): Fine filaments of galaxies detected within voids. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnrasl/slu019

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