Cosmic Web Dynamics: Forces and Strains

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the gravitational forces and tidal fields within the Cosmic Web, revealing filaments as the dominant dynamical component and highlighting the complex interplay between voids, walls, and clusters in shaping cosmic structure.

Contribution

It introduces a multiscale morphological analysis of the Cosmic Web using N-body simulations to quantify the forces and strains from different structures, emphasizing filaments' dominance.

Findings

Filaments dominate the interior and most regions of the Cosmic Web.

Voids exhibit divergent outflow patterns influencing large-scale structure.

Cluster nodes have limited gravitational influence beyond their immediate vicinity.

Abstract

This study concerns an inventory of the gravitational force and tidal field induced by filaments, walls, cluster nodes and voids on Megaparsec scales and how they assemble and shape the Cosmic Web. The study is based on a N$_{\rm Part}=512^3$ $\Lambda$CDM dark matter only N-body simulation in a (300$h^{-1}$~Mpc)$^3$ box at $z=0$. We invoke the density field NEXUS+ multiscale morphological procedure to assign the appropriate morphological feature to each location. We then determine the contribution by each of the cosmic web components to the local gravitational and tidal forces. We find that filaments are, by far, the dominant dynamical component in the interior of filaments, in the majority of underdense void regions and in all wall regions. The gravitational influence of cluster nodes is limited, and they are only dominant in their immediate vicinity. The force field induced by voids is marked by divergent outflowing patterns, yielding the impression of a segmented volume in which voids push matter towards their boundaries. Voids manifest themselves strongly in the tidal field as a cellular tapestry that is closely linked to the multiscale cosmic web. However, even within the interior of voids, the dynamical influence of the surrounding filaments is stronger than the outward push by voids. Therefore, the dynamics of voids cannot be understood without taking into account the influence of the environment. We conclude that filaments constitute the overpowering gravitational agent of the cosmic web, while voids are responsible for the cosmic web's spatial organisation and hence of its spatial connectivity.