In this work, we combine ellipticity and major axis position angle
measurements from the Sloan Digital Sky Server Data Release 16 (SDSS DR16) with
the group finder algorithm of Rodriguez \& Merch\'an to determine the alignment
of the central galaxies with the surrounding structures and satellite galaxies
lying in their group. We use two independent methods: A modified version of the
two-point cross-correlation function and the angle between the central galaxy
orientation and the satellite galaxies relative position. The first method
allows us to study the inner and outer regions of the cluster, while the second
method provides information within the halos. Our results show that central
galaxies present anysotropy in the correlation function up to ∼10h−1Mpc, which becomes ∼10\% stronger for the brightest ones
(0.1Mr<−21.5). When we split the galaxy sample by colour, we find that
red central galaxies are the main contributors to this anisotropy. We also show
that this behaviour does not depend on the group mass or central galaxy
ellipticity. Finally, our results are in agreement with previous findings,
showing that the two-point cross-correlation function is a best tracer of the
galaxy alignments using all galaxies and not only those of the group to which
it belongs. In addition, this feature allows us to explore the behaviour of the
alignment on larger scales.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, sent to MNRA