Galaxy and Halo Root Systems: Fingerprints of Mass Assembly

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Neyrinck, Mark, Aragón-Calvo, Miguel, Szapudi, István
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Neyrinck, Mark
Aragón-Calvo, Miguel
Szapudi, István
author_facet Neyrinck, Mark
Aragón-Calvo, Miguel
Szapudi, István
contents We discuss what we call halo or galaxy root systems, collections of particle pathlines that show the infall of matter from the initial uniform distribution into a collapsed structure. The matter clumps as it falls in; projected through time, it produces filamentary density enhancements analogous to tree roots and branches, blood vessels, or even human transportation infrastructure in cities and regions. This relates to the larger-scale cosmic web, but is defined locally about one of its nodes: a physical, geometric version of a merger tree. We find dark-matter-halo root systems on average to exhibit more roots and root branches for the largest cluster haloes than in small haloes. This may relate to the `cosmic-web detachment' mechanism that likely contributes to star-formation quenching in galaxy groups and clusters. We also find that high spin manifests in these root systems as curvier roots.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_21015
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Galaxy and Halo Root Systems: Fingerprints of Mass Assembly
Neyrinck, Mark
Aragón-Calvo, Miguel
Szapudi, István
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Astrophysics of Galaxies
We discuss what we call halo or galaxy root systems, collections of particle pathlines that show the infall of matter from the initial uniform distribution into a collapsed structure. The matter clumps as it falls in; projected through time, it produces filamentary density enhancements analogous to tree roots and branches, blood vessels, or even human transportation infrastructure in cities and regions. This relates to the larger-scale cosmic web, but is defined locally about one of its nodes: a physical, geometric version of a merger tree. We find dark-matter-halo root systems on average to exhibit more roots and root branches for the largest cluster haloes than in small haloes. This may relate to the `cosmic-web detachment' mechanism that likely contributes to star-formation quenching in galaxy groups and clusters. We also find that high spin manifests in these root systems as curvier roots.
title Galaxy and Halo Root Systems: Fingerprints of Mass Assembly
topic Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.21015