1 research outputs found
The Nearest Neighbor Alignment of Cluster X-ray Isophotes
We examine the orientations of rich galaxy cluster X-ray isophotes with
respect to their rich nearest neighbors using existing samples of Abell cluster
position angles measured from {\it Einstein} and {\it ROSAT} observations. We
study a merged subset of these samples using updated and improved positions and
redshifts for Abell/ACO clusters. We find high confidence for alignment, which
increases as nearest neighbor distance is restricted. We conclude that there is
a strong alignment signal in all this data, consistent with gravitational
instability acting on Gaussian perturbations.Comment: Moderate revisions, including additional test for systematic error.
Conclusions unchanged. Accepted for publication in Ap