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Register a new userThe structural elements of the cosmic web
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Added by
Rien van de Weygaert
Publication date
2016
fields
Physics
and research's language is
English
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In 1970 Zeldovich published a far-reaching paper presenting a simple equation describing the nonlinear growth of primordial density inhomogeneities. The equation was remarkably successful in explaining the large scale structure in the Universe that we observe: a Universe in which the structure appears to be delineated by filaments and clusters of galaxies surrounding huge void regions. In order to concretise this impression it is necessary to define these structural elements through formal techniques with which we can compare the Zeldovich model and N-body simulations with the observational data. We present an overview of recent efforts to identify voids, filaments and clusters in both the observed galaxy distribution and in numerical simulations of structure formation. We focus, in particular, on methods that involve no fine-tuning of parameters and that handle scale dependence automatically. It is important that these techniques should result in finding structures that relate directly to the dynamical mechanism of structure formation.
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We investigate the ability of three reconstruction techniques to analyze and investigate weblike features and geometries in a discrete distribution of objects. The three methods are the linear Delaunay Tessellation Field Estimator (DTFE), its higher order equivalent Natural Neighbour Field Estimator (NNFE) and a version of Kriging interpolation adapted to the specific circumstances encountered in galaxy redshift surveys, the Natural Lognormal Kriging technique. DTFE and NNFE are based on the local geometry defined by the Voronoi and Delaunay tessellations of the galaxy distribution. The three reconstruction methods are analysed and compared using mock magnitude-limited and volume-limited SDSS redshift surveys, obtained on the basis of the Millennium simulation. We investigate error trends, biases and the topological structure of the resulting fields, concentrating on the void population identified by the Watershed Void Finder. Environmental effects are addressed by evaluating the density fields on a range of Gaussian filter scales. Comparison with the void population in the original simulation yields the fraction of false void mergers and false void splits. In most tests DTFE, NNFE and Kriging have largely similar density and topology error behaviour. Cosmetically, higher order NNFE and Kriging methods produce more visually appealing reconstructions. Quantitatively, however, DTFE performs better, even while computationally far less demanding. A successful recovery of the void population on small scales appears to be difficult, while the void recovery rate improves significantly on scales > 3 h-1Mpc. A study of small scale voids and the void galaxy population should therefore be restricted to the local Universe, out to at most 100 h-1Mpc.
The cosmic web is the largest scale manifestation of the anisotropic gravitational collapse of matter. It represents the transitional stage between linear and non-linear structures and contains easily accessible information about the early phases of structure formation processes. Here we investigate the characteristics and the time evolution of morphological components since. Our analysis involves the application of the NEXUS Multiscale Morphology Filter (MMF) technique, predominantly its NEXUS+ version, to high resolution and large volume cosmological simulations. We quantify the cosmic web components in terms of their mass and volume content, their density distribution and halo populations. We employ new analysis techniques to determine the spatial extent of filaments and sheets, like their total length and local width. This analysis identifies cluster and filaments as the most prominent components of the web. In contrast, while voids and sheets take most of the volume, they correspond to underdense environments and are devoid of group-sized and more massive haloes. At early times the cosmos is dominated by tenuous filaments and sheets, which, during subsequent evolution, merge together, such that the present day web is dominated by fewer, but much more massive, structures. The analysis of the mass transport between environments clearly shows how matter flows from voids into walls, and then via filaments into cluster regions, which form the nodes of the cosmic web. We also study the properties of individual filamentary branches, to find long, almost straight, filaments extending to distances larger than 100Mpc/h. These constitute the bridges between massive clusters, which seem to form along approximatively straight lines.
We investigate the characteristics and the time evolution of the cosmic web from redshift, z=2, to present time, within the framework of the NEXUS+ algorithm. This necessitates the introduction of new analysis tools optimally suited to describe the very intricate and hierarchical pattern that is the cosmic web. In particular, we characterize filaments (walls) in terms of their linear (surface) mass density. This is very good in capturing the evolution of these structures. At early times the cosmos is dominated by tenuous filaments and sheets, which, during subsequent evolution, merge together, such that the present day web is dominated by fewer, but much more massive, structures. We also show that voids are more naturally described in terms of their boundaries and not their centres. We illustrate this for void density profiles, which, when expressed as a function of the distance from void boundary, show a universal profile in good qualitative agreement with the theoretical shell-crossing framework of expanding underdense regions.
The cosmic web is one of the most striking features of the distribution of galaxies and dark matter on the largest scales in the Universe. It is composed of dense regions packed full of galaxies, long filamentary bridges, flattened sheets and vast low density voids. The study of the cosmic web has focused primarily on the identification of such features, and on understanding the environmental effects on galaxy formation and halo assembly. As such, a variety of different methods have been devised to classify the cosmic web -- depending on the data at hand, be it numerical simulations, large sky surveys or other. In this paper we bring twelve of these methods together and apply them to the same data set in order to understand how they compare. In general these cosmic web classifiers have been designed with different cosmological goals in mind, and to study different questions. Therefore one would not {it a priori} expect agreement between different techniques however, many of these methods do converge on the identification of specific features. In this paper we study the agreements and disparities of the different methods. For example, each method finds that knots inhabit higher density regions than filaments, etc. and that voids have the lowest densities. For a given web environment, we find substantial overlap in the density range assigned by each web classification scheme. We also compare classifications on a halo-by-halo basis; for example, we find that 9 of 12 methods classify around a third of group-mass haloes (i.e. $M_{rm halo}sim10^{13.5}h^{-1}M_{odot}$) as being in filaments. Lastly, so that any future cosmic web classification scheme can be compared to the 12 methods used here, we have made all the data used in this paper public.
We analyze the structure and connectivity of the distinct morphologies that define the Cosmic Web. With the help of our Multiscale Morphology Filter (MMF), we dissect the matter distribution of a cosmological $Lambda$CDM N-body computer simulation into cluster, filaments and walls. The MMF is ideally suited to adress both the anisotropic morphological character of filaments and sheets, as well as the multiscale nature of the hierarchically evolved cosmic matter distribution. The results of our study may be summarized as follows: i).- While all morphologies occupy a roughly well defined range in density, this alone is not sufficient to differentiate between them given their overlap. Environment defined only in terms of density fails to incorporate the intrinsic dynamics of each morphology. This plays an important role in both linear and non linear interactions between haloes. ii).- Most of the mass in the Universe is concentrated in filaments, narrowly followed by clusters. In terms of volume, clusters only represent a minute fraction, and filaments not more than 9%. Walls are relatively inconspicous in terms of mass and volume. iii).- On average, massive clusters are connected to more filaments than low mass clusters. Clusters with $M sim 10^{14}$ M$_{odot}$ h$^{-1}$ have on average two connecting filaments, while clusters with $M geq 10^{15}$ M$_{odot}$ h$^{-1}$ have on average five connecting filaments. iv).- Density profiles indicate that the typical width of filaments is 2$Mpch$. Walls have less well defined boundaries with widths between 5-8 Mpc h$^{-1}$. In their interior, filaments have a power-law density profile with slope ${gamma}approx -1$, corresponding to an isothermal density profile.
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