Star formation and gas phase history of the cosmic web

Abstract

We present a new method of tracking and characterizing the environment in which galaxies and their associated circumgalactic medium evolve. We have developed a structure finding algorithm that uses the rate of change of the density gradient to self-consistently parse and followthe evolution of groups/clusters, filaments and voids in large-scale structure simulations. We use this to trace the complete evolution of the baryons in the gas phase and the star formation history within each structure in our simulated volume.We vary the structuremeasure threshold to probe the complex inner structure of star-forming regions in poor clusters, filaments and voids.We find that the majority of star formation occurs in cold, condensed gas in filaments at intermediate redshifts (z ~ 3). We also show that much of the star formation above a redshift z = 3 occurs in low-contrast regions of filaments, but as the density contrast increases at lower redshift, star formation switches to the high-contrast regions, or inner parts, of filaments. Since filaments bridge the void and cluster regions, it suggests that the majority of star formation occurs in galaxies in intermediate density regions prior to the accretion on to groups/clusters. We find that both filaments and poor clusters are multiphase environments distinguishing themselves by different distributions of gas phases.