The Evolving Effect Of Cosmic Web Environment On Galaxy Quenching (2303.08088v2)

Abstract: We investigate how cosmic web structures affect galaxy quenching in the IllustrisTNG (TNG100) cosmological simulations by reconstructing the cosmic web within each snapshot using the DisPerSE framework. We measure the comoving distance from each galaxy with stellar mass $\log(M_{\ast}/\mathrm{M}{\odot}) \geq 8$ to the nearest node ($d{\mathrm{node}}$) and the nearest filament spine ($d_{\mathrm{fil}}$) to study the dependence of both median specific star formation rate (<sSFR>) and median gas fraction (<$f_{\mathrm{gas}}$>) on these distances. We find that the <sSFR> of galaxies is only dependent on cosmic web environment at $z<2$, with the dependence increasing with time. At $z\leq0.5$, $8 \leq \log(M_{\ast}/\mathrm{M}{\odot}) < 9$ galaxies are quenched at $d{\mathrm{node}}\lesssim1$~Mpc, and have significantly-suppressed star formation at $d_{\mathrm{fil}}\lesssim1$~Mpc, trends driven mostly by satellite galaxies. At $z\leq1$, in contrast to the monotonic drop in <sSFR> of $\log(M_{\ast}/\mathrm{M}{\odot}) <10$ galaxies with decreasing $d{\mathrm{node}}$ and $d_{\mathrm{fil}}$, $\log(M_{\ast}/\mathrm{M}{\odot}) \geq 10$ galaxies - both centrals and satellites - experience an upturn in <sSFR> at $d{\mathrm{node}}\lesssim0.2$~Mpc. Much of this cosmic web dependence of star formation activity can be explained by an evolution in $<f_{\mathrm{gas}}>$. Our results suggest that in the past $\sim$10 Gyr, low-mass satellites are quenched by rapid gas stripping in dense environments near nodes and gradual gas starvation in intermediate-density environments near filaments, while at earlier times cosmic web structures efficiently channeled cold gas into most galaxies. State-of-the-art ongoing spectroscopic surveys such as SDSS and DESI, as well as those planned with the Subaru Prime Focus Spectrograph, JWST and Roman, are required to test our predictions against observations.