We have developed a framework to study the intergalactic medium (IGM), the circumgalactic medium (CGM) and embedded galaxies in the context of the cosmic neighborhood they evolve in. The formation, evolution, and chemical composition of galaxies are influenced by their interactions with the CGM and therefore the local cosmic environment. The CGM is in turn embedded in the intergalactic medium (IGM) which is composed of an extensive network of clusters, filaments, and sheets of galaxies with vast empty expanses (voids) between them. We have developed algorithms that track clusters/groups, filaments and voids in the cosmic web, allowing us to parse the cosmic web in simulations to study the IGM, CGM, the environmental history of embedded halos, and track the physics associated with each environment (e.g. galaxy-galaxy and galaxy-medium interactions). Our novel Environmentally Dependent Galaxy Evolution (EDGE) framework uses publicly available large scale simulations as our fiducial model coupled with our own simulations to probe the effect of departures from a standard cosmology to self-interacting dark matter and time-dependent dark energy models. We discuss the recent insights we have gained using this framework on the neighborhood history of galaxies. The prospects for using this computational framework to build a bridge between simulations and observations in the coming era of large astronomical datasets will also be addressed.
Lara Arielle Phillips, is a graduate of McGill University (BSc, Honours Physics) and Princeton University (PhD), an NSBP Fellow, and faculty in Physics and Astronomy at the University of Notre Dame. She adapted medical physics tools to peer into the filaments, voids, and clusters of the cosmic web. Her team developed the EDGE computational framework to understand how environment impacts the evolution of galaxies and their associated CGM and study the nucleosynthesis enrichment of the cosmic web in standard and alternate cosmologies. She is a co-producer of an art + science collaboration and helps lead a liberal arts college in prison.
