The Computational Cosmology group of the Department of Astronomy and
Astrophysics (DAA) of Valencia University (UV) has published an article in
The Astrophysical Journal Letters, one of the international journals with
the greatest impact in Astrophysics, which shows, with complex
theoretical-computational models, that cosmic voids are constantly
replenished with external matter.
"This totally unexpected result can have transcendental implications, not
only for our understanding of the large-scale structure of the universe, but
on the settings for the creation and evolution of galaxies," explains
Vicente Quilis, director at the DAA and head researcher for the project.
"Cosmic voids are the largest structures in the cosmos, and knowledge on
their creation and evolution is essential to understand the structure of the
universe," says Susana Planelles, co-director of the research. Studying them
as a physical occurrence has always been extremely complex precisely due to
being large volumes with very low material content. From an observational
point of view, analyzing the few existing items inside them is very hard,
and the theoretical modeling of these occurrences is no less complex, which
is why highly simplified descriptions of these structures are used.
The commonly accepted paradigm among the scientific community understood
cosmic voids as fossil regions that came from the smooth and slow evolution
of the less dense regions generated in the primordial phases of the
universe. "This way, voids would expand by increasing their volume and
losing their matter, which would escape through their boundaries. In this
context, the universe would be created by large and practically empty
bubbles (the voids) which, by expanding, would push the matter between one
another, which would lead to the filaments and clusters of galaxies,"
explains David Vallés, first author of the publication.
However, this firmly established idea has been questioned by the work
carried out by the DAA with this new pioneering research, which is part of
the doctoral thesis of researcher David Vallés, which was directed by DAA
professor Susana Planelles and professor Vicent Quilis. The complex
cosmologic simulations required were conducted at the supercomputer of the
UV called Lluís Vives.
Reference:
David Vallés-Pérez et al, Void Replenishment: How Voids Accrete Matter Over
Cosmic History, The Astrophysical Journal Letters (2021).
DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ac2816
Tags:
Space & Astrophysics