The clustering of critical points in the evolving cosmic web

Speaker

Junsup Shim
Korea Institute for Advanced Study (Republic of Korea)

Abstract

Critical points of a field are points where the gradient of the field vanishes. There are four types of critical points in the 3D cosmic density field which are classified by the signs of the eigenvalues of the density Hessian at those points. According to the standard theory of structure formation, the critical points of the density field are typically the sites where the most over- and under-dense non-linear large-scale structures form. Thus, the main skeletal structure of the cosmic web can be possibly traced and examined with these special points. In this talk, I will discuss the cosmic evolution of the clustering properties of peak-, filament-, wall-, void-type critical points focusing on both small separations and baryonic acoustic oscillation scales. A qualitative comparison to the corresponding theory for Gaussian random fields to understand the observed features will also be discussed. Finally, I will summarize by relating our findings to the "Cosmic crystal" structure.

Date and Time

September 30 2021
4pm KST (= 7am UTC)

Recording

Link to the recording on Youtube