Abstract
We investigate how cosmic web structures affect galaxy quenching in the IllustrisTNG (TNG100) cosmological simulations by reconstructing the cosmic web within each snapshot using the DisPerSE framework. We measure the comoving distance from each galaxy with stellar mass log(M∗/M⊙)≥8 to the nearest node (d node) and the nearest filament spine (d fil) to study the dependence of both the median specific star formation rate ( sSFR〉) and the median gas fraction ( f gas〉) on these distances. We find that the sSFR〉 of galaxies is only dependent on the cosmic web environment at z < 2, with the dependence increasing with time. At z ≤ 0.5, 8≤log(M∗/M⊙)<9 galaxies are quenched at d node 2 1 Mpc, and have significantly suppressed star formation at d fil 2 1 Mpc, trends driven mostly by satellite galaxies. At z ≤ 1, in contrast to the monotonic drop in sSFR〉 of log(M∗/M⊙)<10 galaxies with decreasing d node and d fil, log(M∗/M⊙)≥10 galaxies - both centrals and satellites - experience an upturn in sSFR〉 at d node 2 0.2 Mpc. Much of this cosmic web dependence of star formation activity can be explained by an evolution in f gas〉. Our results suggest that in the past 1/410 Gyr, low-mass satellites are quenched by rapid gas stripping in dense environments near nodes and gradual gas starvation in intermediate-density environments near filaments. At earlier times, cosmic web structures efficiently channeled cold gas into most galaxies. State-of-the-art ongoing spectroscopic surveys such as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and DESI, as well as those planned with the Subaru Prime Focus Spectrograph, JWST, and Roman, are required to test our predictions against observations.
Original language | American English |
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Article number | 114 |
Journal | Astrophysical Journal |
Volume | 950 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 1 Jun 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We are very grateful to N. Luber and Z. Edwards for their help with setting up D is P er SE. We thank the anonymous referee for helpful comments that improved the quality of this manuscript. We thank the attendees of the 2022 Santa Cruz Galaxy Workshop and the 2023 KITP Cosmic Web Conference, including F. van den Bosch, J. Woo, H. Aung, J. Powell, C. Pichon, U. Kuchner, C. Welker, S. Simha, K.-G. Lee, and R. Momose, for stimulating and interesting conversations on this work. F.H., J.N.B., and A.A. are supported by the National Science Foundation LEAPS-MPS award #2137452. O.E. is supported by an incubator fellowship of the Open Source Program Office at UC Santa Cruz funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (G-2021-16957). D.N. is supported by NSF (AST-2206055) and NASA (80NSSC22K0821 and TM3-24007X) grants.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society.