http://arxiv.org/abs/1504.00077
The bridge effect of void filaments is a phrase coined by Park & Lee (2009b) to explain the correlations found in a numerical experiment between the luminosity of the void galaxies and the degree of the straightness of their host filaments. Their numerical finding implies that a straight void filament provides a narrow channel for the efficient transportation of gas and matter particles from the surroundings into the void galaxies. To observationally confirm the presence of the bridge effect of void filaments, we identify the filamentary structures from the Sloan void catalog and determine the specific size of each void filament as a measure of its straightness. Using both classical and Bayesian statistics, we indeed detect a strong tendency that the void galaxies located in the more straight filaments are on average more luminous, which is in agreement with the numerical prediction. It is also shown that the strength of correlation increases with the spatial extent of the void filaments, which can be physically understood on the grounds that the more stretched filaments can connect the dense surroundings even to the galaxies located deep in the central parts of the voids. This observational evidence may provide a key clue to the puzzling issue of why the void galaxies have higher specific star formation rates and bluer colours than their wall counterparts.
J. Shim, J. Lee and F. Hoyle
Thu, 2 Apr 15
6/61
Comments: submitted for publication in ApJ, 5 figures, comments welcome
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