Tracking Halo Orbits and Their Mass Evolution around Large-scale Filaments

TL;DR

This study investigates the orbital dynamics and mass evolution of dark matter halos around large-scale filaments using cosmological simulations, revealing correlations between halo trajectories, mass loss, and filament density.

Contribution

It introduces a phase-space analysis of halo orbits around filaments, linking their dynamical behavior and mass changes to large-scale structure formation.

Findings

Halos exhibit distinct orbital trajectories around filaments.

Mass loss is more common in halos near denser filaments.

Mass segregation around filaments is explained by formation history and dynamical friction.

Abstract

We have explored the dynamical and mass evolution of halos driven by large-scale filaments using a dark matter-only cosmological simulation with the help of a phase-space analysis. Since a non-negligible number of galaxies is expected to fall into the cluster environment through large-scale filaments, tracking how halos move around large-scale filaments can provide a more comprehensive view on the evolution of cluster galaxies. Halos exhibit orbital motions around filaments, which emerge as specific trajectories in a phase space composed of halos' perpendicular distance and velocity component with respect to filaments. These phase-space trajectories can be represented by three cases according to their current states. We parameterize the trajectories with halos' initial position and velocity, maximum velocity, formation time, and time since first crossing, which are found to be correlated with each other. These correlations are explained well in the context of the large-scale structure formation. The mass evolution and dynamical properties of halos seem to be affected by the density of filaments, which can be shown from the fact that halos around denser filaments are more likely to lose their mass and be bound within large-scale filaments. Finally we reproduce the mass segregation trend around filaments found in observations. It is resulted because halos that formed earlier arrived filaments earlier, and grew efficiently there being more massive. We also found that dynamical friction helps to retain this segregation trend.