Fractal analysis of the large-scale stellar mass distribution in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

TL;DR

This paper applies fractal analysis to the large-scale stellar mass distribution in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, revealing multifractal geometry and comparing it with cosmological simulations to understand cosmic web structure.

Contribution

It introduces a novel multifractal analysis of the SDSS data and compares the results with N-body simulation geometries, highlighting key structural features.

Findings

Good agreement between observed and simulated multifractal structures

Identification of a minimum singularity strength of one

Detection of a non-lacunar, supercluster-dense structure

Abstract

A novel fractal analysis of the cosmic web structure is carried out, employing the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, data release 7. We consider the large-scale stellar mass distribution, unlike other analyses, and determine its multifractal geometry, which is compared with the geometry of the cosmic web generated by cosmological N-body simulations. We find a good concordance, the common features being: (i) a minimum singularity strength equal to one, which corresponds to the edge of diverging gravitational energy and differs from the adhesion model prediction; (ii) a "supercluster set" of relatively high dimension where the mass concentrates; and (iii) a non-lacunar structure, like the one generated by the adhesion model.