Recent Advances in the Study of Effects of Cosmic Filaments on Star Formation Activities postprint

Abstract: Large-scale structures of galaxies extending scales up to hundreds of parsecs are also known as the cosmic web. These structures are classified into voids, filaments, walls, and nodes based on both geometric features and galaxy number density distributions. Compared with the void environment, galaxies residing in the neighborhood of filaments usually have higher stellar mass and higher fraction of early-type red galaxies. Observations and simulations demonstrate that star formation activity declines as galaxies approach filaments. However, several factors might induce uncertainties: different algorithms result in differences among the reconstructed cosmic web; there are different methods to measure and quantify the geometric properties of filaments; in the vicinity of filaments, the stellar mass, the local galaxy density as well as halo mass are higher, which also induce variations in the star formation activity. Algorithms for finding the cosmic web structures are compared, and when factors such as stellar mass, local galaxy density and halo mass are under controlled, the effects of filaments on star formation are reviewed, with the goal of understanding how star formation is affected by the filament environment.