Some implications of the anisotropic distribution of satellite galaxies

We examine a possible connection between the anisotropic distribution of sa tellite galaxies around giant spiral galaxies and the evolution of satellit e systems. The observed polar anisotropy either is imprinted by initial con ditions or develops from an initially symmetric distribution. We attempt to discriminate between these two possibilities by exploring the implications of the latter one. From the observed distribution of satellite galaxies re lative to the primary galaxy's disk, we derive constraints on the orbital i nclinations of the current satellite population. Using this derived inclina tion limit and assuming that the initial population had no preferred orbita l inclination, we estimate the size of the hypothesized original population . We find that our best-fit models imply a population of destroyed (or inhi bited) satellites whose combined luminosity (assuming the same MIL as for t he observed satellites) is between 18% and 103% of the current disk luminos ity.