Anisotropic distribution of SDSS satellite galaxies: Planar (not polar) alignment

The distribution of satellite galaxies relative to isolated host galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) is investigated. Host-satellite systems are selected using three different methods, yielding samples of similar to 3300, similar to 1600, and similar to 950 satellites. In the plane of the sky, the distributions of all three samples show highly significant deviations from circular symmetry ( >99.99%, >99.99%, and 99.79% confidence levels, respectively), and the degree of anisotropy is a strong function of the projected radius, r(p), at which the satellites are found. For r(p) less than or similar to 100 kpc, the SDSS satellites are aligned preferentially with the major axes of the hosts. This is in stark contrast to the Holmberg effect, in which satellites are aligned with the minor axes of host galaxies. The degree of anisotropy in the distribution of the SDSS satellites decreases with r(p) and is consistent with an isotropic distribution at of order the 1 sigma level for. 250 kpc less than or similar to r(p) less than or similar to 500 kpc.