arXiv subjects

Jounghun Lee

Publications and source records attributed to Jounghun Lee.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

arXiv2009

Lagrangian Statistics of Dark Halos in a LCDM Cosmology

New statistical properties of dark matter halos in Lagrangian space are presented. Tracing back the dark matter particles constituting bound halos resolved in a series of N-body simulations, we measure quantitatively the correlations of the proto-halo's inertia tensors with the local tidal tensors and investigate how the correlation strength depends on the proto-halo's sphericity, local density and filtering scale. It is shown that the majority of the proto-halos exhibit strong correlations between the two tensors provided that the tidal field is smoothed on the proto-halo's mass scale. The correlation strength is found to increase as the proto-halo's sphericity increases, as the proto-halo's mass increases, and as the local density becomes close to the critical value, delta_{ec}. It is also found that those peculiar proto-halos which exhibit exceptionally weak correlations between the two tensors tend to acquire higher specific angular momentum in Eulerian space, which is consistent with the linear tidal torque theory. In the light of our results, it is intriguing to speculate a hypothesis that the low surface brightness galaxies observed at present epoch correspond to the peculiar proto-halos with extreme low-sphericity whose inertia tensors are weakly correlated with the local tidal tensors.

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arXiv2009

The Anisotropic Two-Point Correlation Functions of the Nonlinear Traceless Tidal Field in the Principal-Axis Frame

Galaxies on the largest scales of the Universe are observed to be embedded in the filamentary cosmic web which is shaped by the nonlinear tidal field. As an efficient tool to quantitatively describe the statistics of this cosmic web, we present the anisotropic two-point correlation functions of the nonlinear traceless tidal field in the principal-axis frame, which are measured using numerical data from an N-body simulation. We show that both of the nonlinear density and traceless tidal fields are more strongly correlated along the directions perpendicular to the eigenvectors associated with the largest eigenvalues of the local tidal field. The correlation length scale of the traceless tidal field is found to be ~20 Mpc/h, which is much larger than that of the density field ~5 Mpc/h. We also provide analytic fitting formulae for the anisotropic correlation functions of the traceless tidal field, which turn out to be in excellent agreement with the numerical results. We expect that our numerical results and analytic formula are useful to disentangle cosmological information from the filamentary network of the large-scale structures.

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arXiv2009

The Bridge Effect of Void Filaments

Cosmic filaments play a role of bridges along which matter and gas accrete onto galaxies to trigger star formation and feed central black holes. Here we explore the correlations between the intrinsic properties of void galaxies and the linearity R_L of void filaments (degree of filament's straightness). We focus on void regions since the bridge effect of filaments should be most conspicuous in the pristine underdense regions like voids. Analyzing the Millennium-Run semi-analytic galaxy catalogue, we identify void filaments consisting of more than four galaxies (three edges) and calculate the means of central black hole mass, star formation rate, and stellar mass as a function of R_L. It is shown that the void galaxies constituting more straight filaments tend to have higher luminosity, more massive central black holes and higher star formation rate. Among the three properties, the central black hole mass is most strongly correlated with R_L. It is also shown that the dark halos constituting straight filaments tend to have similar masses. Our results suggest that the fuel-supply for central black holes and star formation of void galaxies occurs most efficiently along straight void filaments whose potential wells are generated by similar-mass dark halos.

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arXiv2009

Probing the Warm Dark Matter with High-z Quasar Luminosity Function

In a warm dark matter (WDM) cosmology, the first objects to form at z>=20 are one dimensional filaments with mean length on the order of the WDM free-streaming scale. Gao and Theuns recently claimed by using high-resolution hydrodynamic simulations that the eventual collapse of these WDM filaments along their longest axes may seed the supermassive black holes that power high-z quasars. In this picture, it is supposed that the high-z quasar luminosity function should reflect how abundant the WDM filaments are in the early universe. We derive analytically the mass function of early-universe filaments with the help of the Zel'dovich approximation. Then, we determine the rate of its decrease in the mass section corresponding to the free streaming scale of a WDM particle of mass m_v. Adjusting the value of m_v, we fit the slope of the analytic model to that of the high-z quasar luminosity function measured from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR3. A new WDM constraint from this feasibility study is found to be consistent with the lightest super-symmetric partner.

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arXiv2009

Normalization of the Matter Power Spectrum via the Ellipticity Function of Giant Galaxy Voids from SDSS DR5

The ellipticity function of cosmic voids exhibits strong dependence on the amplitude of the linear matter power spectrum. Analyzing the most recent void catalogs constructed by Foster and Nelson from the fifth data release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, we measure observationally the ellipticity function of giant galaxy voids. Then, we incorporate the redshift distortion and galaxy bias effect into the analytic model of the void ellipticity function and fit it to the observational result by adjusting the value of the power-spectrum normalization with the help of the generalized chi^{2}-minimization method. The best-fit normalization of the linear power spectrum is found to be sigma_{8}=0.90+/-0.04. Our result is higher than the WMAP sigma_{8}-value but consistent with that from the recent work of Liu and Li who have constructed a new improved CMB map independently.

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arXiv2009

The Mass Function of Void Groups as a Probe of the Primordial non-Gaussianity

The primordial non-Gaussianity signal, if measured accurately, will allow us to distinguish between different candidate models for the cosmic inflation. Since the galaxy groups located in void regions are rare events, their abundance may be a sensitive probe of the primordial non-Gaussianity. We construct an analytic model for the mass function of void groups in the framework of the extended Press-Schechter theory with non-Gaussian initial conditions and investigate how it depends on the primordial non-Gaussianity parameter. A feasibility study is conducted by fitting the analytic mass function of void groups to the observational results from the galaxy group catalog of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 4 with adjusting the primordial non-Gaussianity parameter.

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arXiv2009

The Size Distribution of Void Filaments in a LCDM Cosmology

The size distribution of mini-filaments in voids has been derived from the Millennium Run halo catalogs at redshifts z=0,0.5,1 and 2. It is assumed that the primordial tidal field originated the presence of filamentary substructures in voids and that the void filaments have evolved only little, keeping the initial memory of the primordial tidal field. Applying the filament-finding algorithm based on the minimal spanning tree (MST) technique to the Millennium voids, we identify the mini-filaments running through voids and measure their sizes at each redshift. Then, we calculate the comoving number density of void filaments as a function of their sizes in the logarithmic interval and determine an analytic fitting function for it. It is found that the size distribution of void mini-filaments in the logarithmic interval has an almost universal shape, insensitive to the redshift: In the short-size section it is well approximated as a power-law, while in the long-size section it decreases exponentially. We expect that the universal size distribution of void filaments may provide a useful cosmological probe without resorting to the rms density fluctuations.

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arXiv2009

Constraining the Dark Energy Equation of State with Cosmic Voids

Our universe is observed to be accelerating due to the dominant dark energy with negative pressure. The dark energy equation of state (w) holds a key to understanding the ultimate fate of the universe. The cosmic voids behave like bubbles in the universe so that their shapes must be quite sensitive to the background cosmology. Assuming a flat universe and using the priors on the matter density parameter (Omega_m) and the dimensionless Hubble parameter (h), we demonstrate analytically that the ellipticity evolution of cosmic voids may be a sensitive probe of the dark energy equation of state. We also discuss the parameter degeneracy between w and Omega_m.

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arXiv2008

Information Content in the Galaxy Angular Power Spectrum from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and Its Implication on Weak Lensing Analysis

We analyze the photometric redshift catalog of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 5 (SDSS DR5) to estimate the Fisher information in the galaxy angular power spectrum with the help of the Rimes-Hamilton technique. It is found that the amount of Fisher information contained in the galaxy angular power spectrum is saturated at lensing multipole scale 300<= l <= 2000 in the redshift range 0.1<= photo-z <0.5. At l=2000, the observed information is two orders of magnitude lower than the case of Gaussian fluctuations. This supports observationally that the translinear regime of the density power spectrum contains little independent information about the initial cosmological conditions, which is consistent with the numerical trend shown by Rimes-Hamilton. Our results also suggest that the Gaussian-noise description may not be valid in weak lensing measurements.

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arXiv2008

The Variation of Galaxy Morphological Type with the Shear of Environment

Recent N-body simulations have shown that the assembly history of galactic halos depend on the density of large-scale environment. It implies that the galaxy properties like age and size of bulge may also vary with the surrounding large-scale structures, which are characterized by the tidal shear as well as the density. By using a sample of 15,882 well-resolved nearby galaxies from the Tully Catalog and the real space tidal field reconstructed from the 2Mass Redshift Survey (2MRS), we investigate the dependence of galaxy morphological type on the shear of large-scale environment where the galaxies are embedded. We first calculate the large scale dimensionless overdensities (d) and the large-scale ellipticities (e) of the regions where the Tully galaxies are located and classify the Tully galaxies according to their morphological types and create subsamples selected at similar value of d but span different ranges in e. We calculate the mean ellipticity, , averaged over each subsample and find a signal of variation of with galaxy morphological type: For the case of 0.5<=d<=1.0, the ellipticals are found to be preferentially located in the regions with low ellipticity. For the case of -0.3<=d<=0.1, the latest-type spirals are found to be preferentially located in the regions with high ellipticity. The null hypothesis that the mean ellipticities of the regions where the ellipticals and the latest type spirals are located are same as the global mean ellipticity averaged over all types is rejected at 3 sigma level when -0.3<=d<=0.1. Yet, no signal of galaxy-shear correlation is found in the highly overdense/underdense regions. The observed trend suggests that the formation epochs of galactic halos might be a function not only of halo mass and large-scale density but also of large-scale shear.

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arXiv2008

Quantifying the Cosmic Web I: The large-scale halo ellipticity-ellipticity and ellipticity-direction correlations

The formation of dark matter halos tends to occur anisotropically along the filaments of the Cosmic Web, which induces both ellipticity-ellipticity (EE) correlations between the shapes of halos, as well as ellipticity-direction (ED) cross-correlations between halo shapes and the directions to neighboring halos. We analyze the halo catalogue and the semi-analytic galaxy catalogue of the recent Millennium Run Simulation to measure the EE and ED correlations numerically at four different redshifts (z=0, 0.5, 1 and 2). For the EE correlations, we find that (i) the major-axis correlation is strongest while the intermediate-axis correlation is weakest; (ii) the signal is significant at distances out to 10 Mpc/h; (iii) the signal decreases as z decreases; (iv) and its behavior depends strongly on the halo mass scale, with larger masses showing stronger correlations at large distances. For the ED correlations, we find that (i) the correlations are much stronger than the EE correlations, and are significant even out to distances of 50 Mpc/h; (ii) the signal also decreases as z decreases; (iii) and it increases with halo mass at all distances. We also provide empirical fitting functions for the EE and ED correlations. The EE correlations are found to scale linearly with the linear density correlation function, xi(r). While the ED cross-correlation is found to scale as xi^{1/2}(r) at large distances beyond 10 Mpc/h. The best-fit values of the fitting parameters for the EE and the ED correlations are all determined through chi^{2}-statistics. Our results may be useful for quantifying the filamentary distribution of dark matter halos over a wide range of scales.

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arXiv2008

The Three Dimensional Structural Shape of the Gravitational Potential in the Local Group

The Local Group is a small galaxy cluster with the membership of 62 nearby galaxies including the Milky Way and M31. Although the Local Group has yet to be virialized, it interacts with the surrounding matter as one gravitationally bound system. To understand the formation and evolution of the Local Group as well as its member galaxies, it is important to reconstruct the gravitational potential field from the surrounding matter distribution in the local cosmic web. By measuring the anisotropy in the spatial distribution of the Local Group galaxies, which is assumed to be induced by the local gravitational tidal field , we resolve the three dimensional structure of the gravitational potential in the vicinity of the Milky Way smoothed on the Local Group mass scale. Our results show that (i) the minor principal axis of the Local Group tidal field is in the equatorial direction of alpha_{p}=15^{h}00^{m} and delta_{p}=20^{d}; (ii) it has a prolate shape with axial ratio of 0.5 +/- 0.13; (iii) the global tides in the Local Group is quite strong, which may provide a partial explanation for the low abundance of dwarf galaxies in the Local Group.

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arXiv2008

The Nonlinear Evolution of Galaxy Intrinsic Alignments

The non-Gaussian contribution to the intrinsic halo spin alignments is analytically modeled and numerically detected. Assuming that the growth of non-Gaussianity in the density fluctuations caused the tidal field to have nonlinear-order effect on the orientations of the halo angular momentum, we model the intrinsic halo spin alignments as a linear scaling of the density correlations on large scales, which is different from the previous quadratic-scaling model based on the linear tidal torque theory. Then, we analyze the halo catalogs from the recent high-resolution Millennium Run simulation at four different redshifts (z=0,0.5,1 and 2) and measure quantitatively the degree of the nonlinear effect on the halo spin alignments and its changes with redshifts. A clear signal of spin correlations is found on scales as large as 10 Mpc/h at z=0, which marks a detection of the nonlinear tidal effect on the intrinsic halo alignments. We also investigate how the nonlinear effect depends on the intrinsic properties of the halos. It is found that the degree of the nonlinear tidal effect increases as the halo mass scale decreases, the halo specific angular momentum increases, and the halo peculiar velocity decreases. We discuss implication of our result on the weak gravitational lensing.

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arXiv2008

Connecting the Physical Properties of Galaxies with the Overdensity and Tidal Shear of the Large-Scale Environment

We have examined the correlations between the large-scale environment of galaxies and their physical properties, using a sample of 28,354 nearby galaxies drawn from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and the large-scale tidal field reconstructed in real space from the 2Mass Redshift Survey and smoothed over a radius of $\sim 6 h^{-1}$Mpc. The large-scale environment is expressed in terms of the overdensity, the ellipticity of the shear and the type of the large-scale structure. The physical properties analyzed include $r$-band absolute magnitude $M_{^{0.1}r}$, stellar mass $M_\ast$, $g-r$ colour, concentration parameter $R_{90}/R_{50}$ and surface stellar mass density $μ_\ast$. Both luminosity and stellar mass are found to be statistically linked to the large-scale environment, regardless of how the environment is quantified. More luminous (massive) galaxies reside preferentially in the regions with higher densities, lower ellipticities and halo-like structures. At fixed luminosity, the large-scale overdensity depends strongly on parameters related to the recent star formation history, that is colour and D(4000), but is almost independent of the structural parameters $R_{90}/R_{50}$ and $μ_\ast$. All the physical properties are statistically linked to the shear of the large-scale environment even when the large-scale density is constrained to a narrow range. This statistical link has been found to be most significant in the quasi-linear regions where the large-scale density approximates to an order of unity, but no longer significant in highly nonlinear regimes with $δ_{\rm LS}\gg 1$.

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arXiv2007

Comparison between the Blue and the Red Galaxy Alignments Detected in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

We measure the intrinsic alignments of the blue and the red galaxies separately by analyzing the spectroscopic data of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 6 (SDSS DR6). For both samples of the red and the blue galaxies with axial ratios of b/a <= 0.8, we detect a 3 sigma signal of the ellipticity correlation in the redshift range of 0 <= z <= 0.4 for r-band absolute (model) magnitude cut of M_r <= -19.2 (no K correction). We note a difference in the strength and the distance scale for the red and the blue galaxy correlation eta_{2D}(r): For the bright blue galaxies, it behaves as a quadratic scaling of the linear density correlation of xi(r) as eta_{2D}(r) proportional to xi^{2}(r) with strong signal detected only at small distance bin of r <= 3 Mpc/h. While for the bright red galaxies it follows a linear scaling as eta_{2D}(r) proportional to xi(r) with signals detected at larger distance out to r~6 Mpc/h. We also test whether the detected correlation signal is intrinsic or spurious by quantifying the systematic error and find that the effect of the systematic error on the ellipticity correlation is negligible. It is finally concluded that our results will be useful for the weak lensing measurements as well as the understanding of the large scale structure formation.

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arXiv2007

The Alignments of the Galaxy Spins with the Real-Space Tidal Field Reconstructed from the Two Mass Redshift Survey

We report a direct observational evidence for the existence of the galaxy spin alignments with the real space tidal field. We calculate the real space tidal field from the real space density field reconstructed recently from the Two Mass Redshift Survey (2MRS) by Erdogdu et al. in 2006. Using a total of 12122 nearby spiral galaxies from the Tully Galaxy Catalog, we calculate the orientations of their spin axes relative to the 2MRS tidal field. We find a clear signal of the intrinsic correlations between the galaxy spins and the intermediate principal axes of the tidal shears. The null hypothesis of no correlation is rejected at 99.99 % confidence level. We also investigate the dependence of the intrinsic correlations on the galaxy morphological type and the environment. It is found that (i) the intrinsic correlation depends weakly on the morphological type of the spiral galaxies but tends to decrease slightly as the type increases; (ii) it is stronger in the high-density regions than in the low-density regions. The observational result is quantitatively consistent with analytic prediction based on the tidal torque theory. It is concluded that the galaxy spin orientations may provide in principle a new complimentary probe of the dark matter distribution.

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arXiv2007

Evolution of the Pancaking Effect in a LCDM Cosmology

We explore the evolution of the large-scale anisotropy in the velocity field caused by the gravitational pancaking effect assuming a LCDM universe. The Millennium Run halo catalogs at four different redshifts, z=0, 0.5, 1 and z=2 are analyzed to find that the pancaking effect starts to intervene the hierarchical structure formation at redshift z=2 when a characteristic pancake scale is around 3 Mpc/h. It is also clearly shown how the degree and scale of the pancaking effect changes with time. An analytic model based on the Zel'dovich approximation is presented to explain quantitatively the evolution of the velocity-pancake alignment. A cosmological implication of our finding and a possibility of detecting a signal in real universe are discussed.

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arXiv2007

Void-Supercluster Alignments

We investigate alignments between the spin axes of cosmic voids and the principal axes of nearby superclusters using the Millennium Run simulation of a LCDM cosmology. The concept of void spin was first introduced by Lee and Park in 2006 to quantify the tidal effect on voids from the surrounding matter distribution. Our numerical analysis reveals that the void spin axes are strongly aligned with the supercluster minor axes, but anti-aligned with the major axes, and have no correlations with the intermediate axes. We provide physical explanations to this numerical results on the basis of tidally induced correlations. It is expected that our work will provide a new insight into the characterization of the cosmic web on the largest scale.

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