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arXiv · 2406.17035

High-definition imaging of a filamentary connection between a close quasar pair at z=3

Davide Tornotti·Michele Fumagalli·Matteo Fossati·Alejandro Benitez-Llambay·David Izquierdo-Villalba·Andrea Travascio·Fabrizio Arrigoni Battaia·Sebastiano Cantalupo·Alexander Beckett·Silvia Bonoli·Pratika Dayal·Valentina D'Odorico·Rajeshwari Dutta·Elisabeta Lusso·Celine Peroux·Marc Rafelski·Mitchell Revalski·Daniele Spinoso·Mark Swinbank
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Abstract

Filaments connecting halos are a long-standing prediction of cold dark matter theories. We present a detection of the cosmic web emission connecting two quasar-host galaxies at redshift z ~3.22 in the MUSE Ultra Deep Field (MUDF). The very deep observations unlock a high-definition view of the filament morphology, a measure of the transition radius between the intergalactic and circumgalactic medium, and the characterization of the surface brightness profiles along the filament and in the transverse direction. Through systematic comparisons with simulations, we validate the filaments' typical density predicted in the current cold dark-matter model. Our analysis of the MUDF field, an excellent laboratory for quantitatively studying filaments in emission, opens a new avenue to constrain the physical properties of the cosmic web and to trace the distribution of dark matter on large scales.

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Davide Tornotti, Michele Fumagalli, Matteo Fossati, Alejandro Benitez-Llambay, David Izquierdo-Villalba, Andrea Travascio, Fabrizio Arrigoni Battaia, Sebastiano Cantalupo, Alexander Beckett, Silvia Bonoli, Pratika Dayal, Valentina D'Odorico, Rajeshwari Dutta, Elisabeta Lusso, Celine Peroux, Marc Rafelski, Mitchell Revalski, Daniele Spinoso, Mark Swinbank. 2024-06-24. High-definition imaging of a filamentary connection between a close quasar pair at z=3. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-024-02463-w

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