ELATE · Evolution of Galaxies in large-scale structures

Evolution of Galaxies in large-scale structures

The large-scale structure (LSS) of the Universe is a network of galaxies in groups, clusters, superclusters, walls, filaments, separated by voids, shaped by gravity. According to the Lambda-Cold Dark Matter (ΛCDM) cosmological model for galaxy formation, the densest part of the LSS is built over time by accreting smaller clusters and groups of galaxies along the filaments. The properties of galaxies are known to be distinct in dense environments as compared to those in isolation (or the field), which are evident in observations and simulations. Within these dense environments, different mechanisms (e.g. ram-pressure stripping; Gunn & Gott 1972) can affect galaxies such that they undergo several changes in their structure and morphology as a result of gas-removal and subsequent suppression of star-formation, and as explained by the morphology-density relation (Dressler 1980). The infalling galaxies which contribute to the cluster mass can experience environmental mechanisms even before they reach the core of a cluster, otherwise known as "pre-processing" (Fujita 2004). In order to understand pre-processing of galaxies in cosmic filaments, we require a large sample of galaxies located in various parts of supercluster. Extracting such features from real astronomical data also require robust tools and methodologies. The project aims to enhance our understanding of the role of the environment in shaping galaxies by exploring all regions in the large-scale structure (LSS). The main scientific goals are to robustly define the true location of galaxies in the Fornax-Eridanus complex and probe the influence of the local environment on galaxy morphology, which serves as a precursor for future studies concerning the evolution of galaxies in the cosmic web. We employ the novel machine learning tool box called 1DREAM (1 Dimensional Recovery Extraction and Analysis of Manifolds; Canducci et al. 2022) to extract filaments of the Fornax-Eridanus supercluster based on the galaxy-distance catalogue by Tempel et al. 2016, in order to study their structure and galactic properties in three-dimensional (3D) space.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union