Paper detail

Segmenting the Universe into dynamically coherent basins

This article explores in depth a watershed concept to partition the universe, introduced in \cite{2019MNRAS.489L...1D} and applied to the {\it Cosmicflows-3} observational dataset. We present a series of tests conducted with cosmological dark matter simulations. In particular we are interested in quantifying the evolution with redshift of large scale structures when defined as segmented basins of attraction. This new dynamical definition in the field of measuring standard rulers demonstrates robustness since all basins show a density contrast $δ$ above one (mean universe density) independently of the simulation spatial resolution or the redshift. Another major finding is that density profiles of the basins show universality in slope. Consequently, there is a unique definition of what is a gravitational watershed at large scale, that can be further used as a probe for cosmology studies.