The Next Generation Fornax Survey (NGFS): VI. The Alignment of Dwarf Galaxies in The Fornax Cluster

Abstract

Using the photometric data from the Next Generation Fornax Survey, we find a significant radial alignment signal among the Fornax dwarf galaxies. For the first time, we report that the radial alignment signal of nucleated dwarfs is stronger than that of non-nucleated ones at 2.4$\sigma$ confidence level, and the dwarfs located in the outer region ($R>R_{\rm{vir}}/3$; $R_{\rm{vir}}$ is the Fornax virial radius) show slightly stronger radial alignment signal than those in the inner region ($R<R_{\rm{vir}}/3$) at $1.5\sigma$ level. We also find that the significance of radial alignment signal is independent of the luminosities or sizes of the dwarfs.