Abstract
Brown's results (1964, 1968) concerning the distribution of orientation angles of spiral galaxies in different areas of the sky are discussed and a graphical statistical test is applied. The deviations from randomness are found to be significant. It seems difficult to ascribe them to selection effects. It is shown that the observed distributions can be explained, if the angular momenta in greater aggregations of galaxies are distributed at random on congruent precession cones with parallel axes. This hypothesis may apply if the following cosmological conditions hold:
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(i)
the matter in the universe was reheated after the recombination at an epoch, when most of the angular momentum was already transferred to the protogalaxies by tidal interaction, and the angular momenta of the protogalaxies in greater aggregations were predominantly parallel at the epoch of reheating;
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(ii)
the ‘magnetic’ model of the universe is valid and the ‘urfield’ was uniform at least at the epoch of reheating. Under these assumptions, the ‘frozen-in’ magnetic field will give rise to forces, which — apart from slowing down the rotation of the protogalaxies — will cause precession of their angular momenta around the direction of the ‘urfield’.
For a rigid body approximation the equations of motion are derived and solved numerically. Approximate analytic solutions are also given. The precession period is in the range of 104 to 108 yr for plausible values of the parameters of the problem.
The observed distributions in the four regions of the sky investigated are — via the precession hypothesis — compatible with a direction of the ‘urfield’ indicated by the work of Sofueet al. (1969) and Reinhardt and Thiel (1970) ofl II≈280°,b II≈+30° tol II≈100°,b II≈−30°.
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Reinhardt, M. Orientation of galaxies and a magnetic ‘urfield’. Astrophys Space Sci 10, 363–382 (1971). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00649681
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00649681