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Cosmic filaments are the channel through which galaxy groups assemble their mass. Cosmic connectivity, namely the number of filaments connected to a given group, is therefore expected to be an important ingredient in shaping group properties. The local connectivity is measured in COSMOS around X-ray-detected groups between redshift 0.5 and 1.2. To this end, large-scale filaments are extracted using the accurate photometric redshifts of the COSMOS2015 catalogue in two-dimensional slices of thickness 120 comoving Mpc centred on the group's redshift. The link between connectivity, group mass, and the properties of the brightest group galaxy (BGG) is investigated. The same measurement is carried out on mocks extracted from the light-cone of the hydrodynamical simulation Horizon-AGN in order to control systematics. More massive groups are on average more connected. At fixed group mass in low-mass groups, BGG mass is slightly enhanced at high connectivity, while in high-mass groups BGG mass is lower at higher connectivity. Groups with a star-forming BGG have on average a lower connectivity at given mass. From the analysis of the Horizon-AGN simulation, we postulate that different connectivities trace different paths of group mass assembly: at high group mass, groups with higher connectivity are more likely to have grown through a recent major merger, which might be in turn the reason for the quenching of the BGG. Future large-field photometric surveys, such as Euclid and LSST, will be able to confirm and extend these results by probing a wider mass range and a larger variety of environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context. Accurate model predictions including the physics of baryons are required to make the most of the upcoming large cosmological surveys devoted to gravitational lensing. The advent of hydrodynamical cosmological simulations enables such predictions on sufficiently sizeable volumes. Aims. Lensing quantities (deflection, shear, convergence) and their statistics (convergence power spectrum, shear correlation functions, galaxy-galaxy lensing) are computed in the past lightcone built in the Horizon-AGN hydrodynamical cosmological simulation, which implements our best knowledge on baryonic physics at the galaxy scale in order to mimic galaxy populations over cosmic time. Methods. Lensing quantities are generated over a one square degree field of view by performing multiple-lens plane ray-tracing through the lightcone, taking full advantage of the 1 kpc resolution and splitting the line of sight over 500 planes all the way to redshift z ∼ 7. Two methods are explored (standard projection of particles with adaptive smoothing, and integration of the acceleration field) to ensure a good implementation. The focus is on small scales where baryons matter most. Results. Standard cosmic shear statistics are affected at the 10% level by the baryonic component for angular scales below a few arcminutes. The galaxy-galaxy lensing signal, or galaxy-shear correlation function, is consistent with measurements for the redshift z ∼ 0.5 massive galaxy population. At higher redshift z ≳ 1, the effect of magnification bias on this correlation is relevant for separations greater than 1 Mpc. Conclusions. This work is pivotal for all current and upcoming weak-lensing surveys and represents a first step towards building a full end-to-end generation of lensed mock images from large cosmological hydrodynamical simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate cosmology from upcoming weak lensing surveys relies on knowledge of the total matter power spectrum at per cent level at scales k < 10 h  Mpc−1, for which modelling the impact of baryonic physics is crucial. We compare measurements of the total matter power spectrum from the Horizon cosmological hydrodynamical simulations: a dark-matter-only run, one with full baryonic physics, and another lacking active galactic nucleus (AGN) feedback. Baryons cause a suppression of power at k ≃ 10 h  Mpc−1 of $${\lt}15{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$$ at $$z$$ = 0, and an enhancement of a factor of a few at smaller scales due to the more efficient cooling and star formation. The results are sensitive to the presence of the highest mass haloes in the simulation and the distribution of dark matter is also impacted up to a few per cent. The redshift evolution of the effect is non-monotonic throughout $$z$$ = 0−5 due to an interplay between AGN feedback and gas pressure, and the growth of structure. We investigate the effectiveness of an analytic 'baryonic correction model' in describing our results. We require a different redshift evolution and propose an alternative fitting function with four free parameters that reproduces our results within $$5{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$$. Compared to other simulations, we find the impact of baryonic processes on the total matter power spectrum to be smaller at $$z$$ = 0. Correspondingly, our results suggest that AGN feedback is not strong enough in the simulation. Total matter power spectra from the Horizon simulations are made publicly available at https://www.horizon-simulation.org/catalogues.html. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intrinsic alignments of galaxies are a significant astrophysical systematic affecting cosmological constraints from weak gravitational lensing. Obtaining numerical predictions from hydrodynamical simulations of expected survey volumes is expensive, and a cheaper alternative relies on populating large darkmatter-only simulations with accuratemodels of alignments calibrated on smaller hydrodynamical runs. This requires connecting the shapes and orientations of galaxies to those of dark matter haloes and to the large-scale structure. In this paper, we characterize galaxy-halo alignments in the Horizon-AGN cosmological hydrodynamical simulation. We compare the shapes and orientations of galaxies in the redshift range of 0 < z < 3 to those of their embedding dark matter haloes, and to the matching haloes of a twin dark-matter only run with identical initial conditions. We find that galaxy ellipticities, in general, cannot be predicted directly from halo ellipticities. The mean misalignment angle between the minor axis of a galaxy and its embedding halo is a function of halo mass, with residuals arising from the dependence of alignment on galaxy type, but not on environment. Haloes are much more strongly aligned among themselves than galaxies, and they decrease their alignment towards low redshift. Galaxy alignments compete with this effect, as galaxies tend to increase their alignment with haloes towards low redshift. We discuss the implications of these results for current halo models of intrinsic alignments and suggest several avenues for improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context. Upcoming weak lensing surveys such as Euclid will provide an unprecedented opportunity to quantify the geometry and topology of the cosmic web, in particular in the vicinity of lensing clusters. Aims. Understanding the connectivity of the cosmic web with unbiased mass tracers, such as weak lensing, is of prime importance to probe the underlying cosmology, seek dynamical signatures of dark matter, and quantify environmental effects on galaxy formation. Methods. Mock catalogues of galaxy clusters are extracted from the N-body PLUS simulation. For each cluster, the aperture multipolar moments of the convergence are calculated in two annuli (inside and outside the virial radius). By stacking their modulus, a statistical estimator is built to characterise the angular mass distribution around clusters. The moments are compared to predictions from perturbation theory and spherical collapse. Results. The main weakly chromatic excess of multipolar power on large scales is understood as arising from the contraction of the primordial cosmic web driven by the growing potential well of the cluster. Besides this boost, the quadrupole prevails in the cluster (ellipsoidal) core, while at the outskirts, harmonic distortions are spread on small angular modes, and trace the non-linear sharpening of the filamentary structures. Predictions for the signal amplitude as a function of the cluster-centric distance, mass, and redshift are presented. The prospects of measuring this signal are estimated for current and future lensing data sets. Conclusions. The Euclid mission should provide all the necessary information for studying the cosmic evolution of the connectivity of the cosmic web around lensing clusters using multipolar moments and probing unique signatures of, for example, baryons and warm dark matter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use percent-level precision photometric redshifts in the UltraVISTA-DR1 near-infrared survey to investigate the changing relationship between galaxy stellar mass and the dark matter haloes hosting them to z ~ 2. We achieve this by measuring the clustering properties and abundances of a series of volume-limited galaxy samples selected by stellar mass and star formation activity. We interpret these results in the framework of a phenomenological halo model and numerical simulations. Our measurements span a uniquely large range in stellar mass and redshift and reach below the characteristic stellar mass to z ~ 2. Our results are: (1) at fixed redshift and scale, clustering amplitude depends monotonically on sample stellar mass threshold; (2) at fixed angular scale, the projected clustering amplitude decreases with redshift but the comoving correlation length remains constant; (3) characteristic halo masses and galaxy bias increase with increasing median stellar mass of the sample; (4) the slope of these relationships is modified in lower mass haloes; (5) concerning the passive galaxy population, characteristic halo masses are consistent with a simply less-abundant version of the full galaxy sample, but at lower redshifts the fraction of satellite galaxies in the passive population is very different from the full galaxy sample; (6) finally,we find that the ratio between the characteristic halo mass and median stellar mass at each redshift bin reaches a peak at log (Mh/M⊙) ~ 12.2 and the position of this peak remains constant out to z ~ 2. The behaviour of the full and passively evolving galaxy samples can be understood qualitatively by considering the slow evolution of the characteristic stellar mass in the redshift range probed by our survey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The kinematic analysis of dark matter and hydrodynamical simulations suggests that the vorticity in large-scale structure is mostly confined to, and predominantly aligned with, their filaments, with an excess of probability of 20 per cent to have the angle between vorticity and filaments direction lower than 60° relative to random orientations. The cross-sections of these filaments are typically partitioned into four quadrants with opposite vorticity sign, arising from multiple flows, originating from neighbouring walls. The spins of haloes embedded within these filaments are consistently aligned with this vorticity for any halo mass, with a stronger alignment for the most massive structures up to an excess of probability of 165 per cent. The global geometry of the flow within the cosmic web is therefore qualitatively consistent with a spin acquisition for smaller haloes induced by this large-scale coherence, as argued in Codis et al. In effect, secondary anisotropic infall (originating from the vortex-rich filament within which these lower-mass haloes form) dominates the angular momentum budget of these haloes. The transition mass from alignment to orthogonality is related to the size of a given multi-flow region with a given polarity. This transition may be reconciled with the standard tidal torque theory if the latter is augmented so as to account for the larger scale anisotropic environment of walls and filaments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The close relationship between mergers and the reorientation of the spin for galaxies and their host dark haloes is investigated using a cosmological hydrodynamical simulation (Horizon-AGN). Through a statistical analysis of merger trees, we show that spin swings are mainly driven by mergers along the filamentary structure of the cosmic web, and that these events account for the preferred perpendicular orientation of massive galaxies with respect to their nearest filament. By contrast, low-mass galaxies (Ms < 1010 M⊙ at redshift 1.5) having undergone very few mergers, if at all, tend to possess a spin well aligned with their filament. Haloes follow the same trend as galaxies but display a greater sensitivity to smooth anisotropic accretion. The relative effect of mergers on magnitude is qualitatively different for minor and major mergers: mergers (and diffuse accretion) generally increase the magnitude of the specific angular momentum, but major mergers also give rise to a population of objects with less specific angular momentum left. Without mergers, secular accretion builds up the specific angular momentum of galaxies but not that of haloes. It also (re)aligns galaxies with their filament. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]