English

The Arrowhead Mini-Supercluster of Galaxies

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics 2015-10-14 v1

Abstract

Superclusters of galaxies can be defined kinematically from local evaluations of the velocity shear tensor. The location where the smallest eigenvalue of the shear is positive and maximal defines the center of a basin of attraction. Velocity and density fields are reconstructed with Wiener Filter techniques. Local velocities due to the density field in a restricted region can be separated from external tidal flows, permitting the identification of boundaries separating inward flows toward a basin of attraction and outward flows. This methodology was used to define the Laniakea Supercluster that includes the Milky Way. Large adjacent structures include Perseus-Pisces, Coma, Hercules, and Shapley but current kinematic data are insufficient to capture their full domains. However there is a small region trapped between Laniakea, Perseus-Pisces, and Coma that is close enough to be reliably characterized and that satisfies the kinematic definition of a supercluster. Because of its shape, it is given the name the Arrowhead Supercluster. This entity does not contain any major clusters. A characteristic dimension is ~25 Mpc and the contained mass is only ~10^15 Msun.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1509.02622,
  title  = {The Arrowhead Mini-Supercluster of Galaxies},
  author = {Daniel Pomarede and R. Brent Tully and Yehuda Hoffman and Helene M. Courtois},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1509.02622},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal. Video can be viewed at http://irfu.cea.fr/arrowhead

R2 v1 2026-06-22T10:52:27.575Z