Galaxy evolution in the metric of the cosmic web
Abstract
The matter distribution in the Universe follows a spectacular web-like structure consisting of voids, walls, filaments and nodes, naturally defining the environment in which galaxies form and evolve across cosmic time. That certain galaxy properties correlate with the environment has been known for several decades. However, the focus has typically been on groups and clusters, providing thus only a partial description of the environmental influence on galaxies. It has therefore become of key importance to address the complexity of the individual structures in the matter distribution, its connectivity, intrinsic multi-scale nature and the wide range of densities involved in order to gain more insight into how the cosmic web couples to galactic scales. I will review recent observational results on the impact of the cosmic web on various galaxy properties (mass, type, angular momentum) at low and intermediate redshifts (e.g. SDSS, GAMA, VIPERS, COSMOS) in the context of state-of-the-art galaxy formation and evolution models.