The MAGPI Survey: the evolution of galaxy spin–filament alignments since z∼0.3

Abstract We present measurements of galaxy spin-filament alignments at 0.20 < z < 0.42 using the MAGPI Survey, exploiting resolved stellar and ionised gas kinematics to reconstruct 3D spin axes. Cosmic filaments are identified using a stellar mass-matched constant-number-density population from the GAMA, MAGPI Redshift Survey and DESI datasets. We detect a flipping of the statistical alignment signal at z ∼ 0.3 as a function of M⋆: low-mass galaxies preferentially exhibit spins parallel to the direction of their host filaments, while high-mass galaxies tend towards perpendicular orientations. The transition mass is measured to be log (M⋆, t/M⊙) ≃ 10.8, approximately 0.6 dex higher than the value for the SAMI Galaxy Survey at z ∼ 0.05. Bootstrap analysis gives 99.5% confidence that the transition mass is higher for MAGPI than SAMI. At fixed stellar mass MAGPI galaxies exhibit stronger parallel alignments than their SAMI counterparts, suggesting evolution of spin–filament alignments over the past ∼ 3 Gyr. The gaseous component in MAGPI galaxies is more closely aligned with filaments than the stellar component, relative to a M⋆-matched SAMI sample. This indicates a stronger coupling between ionised gas and the large-scale structure at z ∼ 0.3, consistent with coherent gas accretion onto filaments remaining efficient at higher M⋆. At z ∼ 0 we detect a transition toward perpendicular alignments at lower M⋆, while the gas and stellar components exhibit similar alignments relative to filaments, likely due to the cumulative effects of mergers and secular evolution.

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Journal
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Published
2026-10-30
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stag2078
Primary Topic
Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
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article
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article

The MAGPI Survey: the evolution of galaxy spin–filament alignments since z∼0.3

Elmo Tempel, Gauri Sharma, B. Ziegler, Caroline Foster et al.
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
article

The MAGPI Survey: the evolution of galaxy spin–filament alignments since z∼0.3

Elmo Tempel, Gauri Sharma, B. Ziegler, Caroline Foster, Lucas M. Valenzuela, Rhea–Silvia Remus, Sabine Thater, K. E. Harborne, Glenn van de Ven, J. Trevor Mendel, Jesse van de Sande, Daria Zakharova, Claudia del P. Lagos, Iris Breda, S. M. Croom, C. Laigle, Matt S. Owers, Matthew Colless, Sabine Bellstedt, Stefania Barsanti, Andrew J Battisti, Emily Wisnioski, Pratyush Kumar Das
article en

Abstract

Abstract We present measurements of galaxy spin-filament alignments at 0.20 < z < 0.42 using the MAGPI Survey, exploiting resolved stellar and ionised gas kinematics to reconstruct 3D spin axes. Cosmic filaments are identified using a stellar mass-matched constant-number-density population from the GAMA, MAGPI Redshift Survey and DESI datasets. We detect a flipping of the statistical alignment signal at z ∼ 0.3 as a function of M⋆: low-mass galaxies preferentially exhibit spins parallel to the direction of their host filaments, while high-mass galaxies tend towards perpendicular orientations. The transition mass is measured to be log (M⋆, t/M⊙) ≃ 10.8, approximately 0.6 dex higher than the value for the SAMI Galaxy Survey at z ∼ 0.05. Bootstrap analysis gives 99.5% confidence that the transition mass is higher for MAGPI than SAMI. At fixed stellar mass MAGPI galaxies exhibit stronger parallel alignments than their SAMI counterparts, suggesting evolution of spin–filament alignments over the past ∼ 3 Gyr. The gaseous component in MAGPI galaxies is more closely aligned with filaments than the stellar component, relative to a M⋆-matched SAMI sample. This indicates a stronger coupling between ionised gas and the large-scale structure at z ∼ 0.3, consistent with coherent gas accretion onto filaments remaining efficient at higher M⋆. At z ∼ 0 we detect a transition toward perpendicular alignments at lower M⋆, while the gas and stellar components exhibit similar alignments relative to filaments, likely due to the cumulative effects of mergers and secular evolution.

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Australian National University (AU), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), The University of Sydney (AU), University of Vienna (AT), Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati (IT), The University of Queensland (AU), The University of Western Australia (AU), Durham University (GB), Trieste Astronomical Observatory (IT), Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris (FR), Observatoire astronomique de Strasbourg (FR), Tartu Observatory (EE), UNSW Sydney (AU), Sorbonne Université (FR), Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences (PT), Centro de Astrofísica da Universidade do Porto (PT), Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Trieste (IT), Institute for Fundamental Physics of the Universe (IT), International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (AU), University of Tartu (EE), Swinburne University of Technology (AU), Université de Strasbourg (FR), Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (DE), University of the Western Cape (ZA), National Institute for Astrophysics (IT), Macquarie University (AU)
Openalex Percentile: Top 14%
Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
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