Correlation between H$\alpha$ emitters and their cosmic web environment at $z \sim 1$

Abstract

Future near-infrared spectroscopic galaxy surveys will target high-redshift emission-line galaxies (ELGs) to test cosmological models. Deriving optimal constraints from emission-line galaxy clustering hinges on a robust understanding of their environmental dependence. Using the TNG300-1 simulation, we explore the correlation between properties of H$\alpha$ emitters and their environment anisotropy rather than traditional density-based measures. Our galactic H$\alpha$ emission model includes contributions from the warm interstellar medium. The environment anisotropy and type are assigned using a halo mass-dependent smoothing scale. We find that most luminous ELGs ($L_{\rm{H}\alpha}>10^{42}\ \rm{erg\ s^{-1}}$) reside in filaments and knots. More generally, ELGs are more biased in strongly anisotropic environments. While correlations with galactic properties are found to be weak, they are statistically significant for host halo masses $M\lesssim 10^{12}\ M_\odot/h$. Our analysis motivates further investigation into how environmental anisotropy influences galaxy evolution, and highlights the potential for leveraging these effects in the analyses of upcoming cosmological surveys.