Speaker
Description
Galaxy clusters, the most massive bound structures today, are thought to arise from overdense protoclusters at high redshift. However, simulations suggest that their progenitors do not always trace the cosmic density peaks, implying that other large-scale environmental factors may drive their growth. In this work, we study how the cosmic web’s filamentary infrastructure shapes the assembly of clusters across cosmic time. We leverage the unprecedented volume and baryonic physics of the FLAMINGO simulations to test whether the filament connectivity (number and mass density of filaments connected to a node) can be a potential driver for the diversity of the growth curve of large-scale structures from redshift 6 to 0. Using the DisPerSE algorithm, we quantify filament networks around protoclusters selected via different criteria (e.g., galaxy overdensities, halo mass) to disentangle the role of connectivity from selection biases. In this talk, I will share results from this work and show i) how filament connectivity varies across protocluster populations, ii) early evidence for its impact on the cluster mass accretion histories, and iii) implications for interpreting protocluster candidates from state-of-the-art facilities like JWST and Euclid.