2022 Project Description

Anatomy of a giant: investigating environment effects in the Saraswati supercluster
This project can be carried out remotely.

Supervisors

Rogério Monteiro-Oliveira
Find out more about supervisors on ASIAA website

Task Description and Goals

According to the hierarchical scenario of structure formation, superclusters of galaxies are going to be the largest structures in the Universe held by the gravitational force. They are currently under formation through the accretion of galaxy clusters and can be found in different morphologies, such as nuclear or filamentary structures. Superclusters also constitute a wealthy laboratory to study the environmental effects on galaxy evolution. For example, some authors have found that disturbed clusters are located preferentially at the outskirts whereas those virialized inhabit the inner regions of superclusters, which suggests a spatial segregation according to the dynamical state. However, the sample of superclusters analyzed in further detail is not large and more studies need to be carried out before generalizing these conclusions.

In this project, we will focus on the Saraswati supercluster using the photometric catalogue of the Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) Survey. The Saraswati supercluster is a massive and large structure composed of (at least) 43 galaxy clusters recently discovered in the Stripe 82 region of SDSS. It spans for at least 200 Mpc across at redshift z ≈ 0.3 forming a wall-like structure. Our goal is to determine the dynamical state of these galaxy clusters, and verify if there is any correlation in respect to their location within the supercluster.

See more about the Saraswati supercluster

Required Background

• Passion for science and curiosity;
• Basic programming abilities (you can choose your preferred language);
• Intermediate English communication and writing.