Disentangling the cosmic web I: morphology of isodensity contours

Apr, 1999
26 pages
Published in:
  • Astrophys.J. 526 (1999) 568-578
e-Print:

Citations per year

199920052011201720230123456
Abstract: (arXiv)
We apply Minkowski functionals and various derived measures to decipher the morphological properties of large-scale structure seen in simulations of gravitational evolution. Minkowski functionals of isodensity contours serve as tools to test global properties of the density field. Furthermore, we identify coherent objects at various threshold levels and calculate their partial Minkowski functionals. We propose a set of two derived dimensionless quantities, planarity and filamentarity, which reduce the morphological information in a simple and intuitive way. Several simulations of the gravitational evolution of initial power-law spectra provide a framework for systematic tests of our method.