2013/11/05 by Mehmet Alpaslan, Aaron S. G. Robotham, A. S. G. Robotham +35
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Galaxy formation and evolution #Physics #Scale (ratio) #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph.CO
paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/mnras/stt2136
published as MNRAS 438 (2014) 177-194 · 20 pages, 16 figures, accepted for publication in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
arxiv created 2013/11/05 · openalex publication_date 2013/12/14 · arxiv updated 2014/01/29 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
From a volume-limited sample of 45 542 galaxies and 6000 groups with z ≤ 0.213, we use an adapted minimal spanning tree algorithm to identify and classify large-scale structures within the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey. Using galaxy groups, we identify 643 filaments across the three equatorial GAMA fields that span up to 200 h−1 Mpc in length, each with an average of eight groups within them. By analysing galaxies not belonging to groups, we identify a secondary population of smaller coherent structures composed entirely of galaxies, dubbed ‘tendrils’ that appear to link filaments together, or penetrate into voids, generally measuring around 10 h−1 Mpc in length and containing on average six galaxies. Finally, we are also able to identify a population of isolated void galaxies. By running this algorithm on GAMA mock galaxy catalogues, we compare the characteristics of large-scale structure between observed and mock data, finding that mock filaments reproduce observed ones extremely well. This provides a probe of higher order distribution statistics not captured by the popularly used two-point correlation function.