THE ORIENTATION OF SPIN VECTORS OF GALAXIES IN THE URSA-MAJOR FILAMENT

Spin vectors of 60 galaxies in the ''Ursa Major filament'' are obtaine d from CCD images and spectroscopic determinations of the directions o f rotation. These data are used to remove the fourfold degeneracy intr oduced by the projected images of galaxies, making possible the comple te reconstruction of the galaxy spin vectors. Several possible organiz ations of spin vectors are investigated by means of statistical analys es of the three-dimensional spin vector maps. The results indicate tha t there exists no significant alignment of galaxy spin vectors with re spect to the supergalactic plane, the supergalactic axis, or the cylin drical axis of the filament itself. No tendency for linear alignment o f spin vectors toward any specific direction was detected. We also obt ain a statistically negative result for azimuthal, radial, and circula r-helical orientation of spin vectors.