Evolving Cosmic Filaments Suppress Dark Matter Halo Accretion Rates and Drive Non-Random Spin Evolution
Time-dependent filament tracking in N-body simulations demonstrates that cosmic filaments suppress halo mass growth and impose coherent torques on spin, beyond static environmental models. This co-evolution framework ties large-scale flows to halo assembly, with implications for galaxy alignment observations. Evidence is simulation-based and requires hydrodynamic validation.
{"The study reconstructs filament histories by matching spatial similarity between z=0 descendants and earlier progenitors, yielding time-dependent density profiles and splashback radii. This filament-centric frame isolates true halo trajectories from bulk filament drift, revealing tidal suppression of accretion that static models miss. Screened major-merger samples isolate pure environmental torques from distinct inflow regimes around filaments.","These results connect large-scale structure dynamics to galaxy formation by showing filaments actively reshape halo mass and angular momentum, explaining observed alignments between galaxy spins and the cosmic web that prior halo-only studies treated separately. The co-evolution approach resolves biases in phase-space analysis and links filament core overdensities directly to reduced net accretion beginning at low-density outskirts.","Main limitation is reliance on a single simulation volume without baryonic physics, limiting generalization to observed galaxy populations. Hydrodynamic runs with the same progenitor algorithm plus larger volumes would strengthen evidence by testing whether gas cooling amplifies or mitigates the reported spin and mass effects.","Next steps include applying the evolving-filament tracker to IllustrisTNG or EAGLE to quantify impacts on star-formation quenching and comparing predicted spin distributions against DESI or Euclid filament catalogs."}
HELIX: Hydrodynamic simulations incorporating the evolving-filament algorithm will show at least 12% lower specific star-formation rates for halos within 2 Mpc of filament spines by 2028.
Sources (3)
- [1]Primary Source(https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.19443)
- [2]Supporting Source(https://arxiv.org/abs/2005.01731)
- [3]Supporting Source(https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2018MNRAS.481.4753C)