English

ODIN: Characterizing the Three-dimensional Structure of Two Protocluster Complexes at $z = 3.1$

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2025-11-25 v2

Abstract

We present a detailed study of the 3D morphology of two extended associations of multiple protoclusters at z=3.1z=3.1. These protocluster 'complexes', designated COSMOS-z3.1-A and COSMOS-z3.1-C, are the most prominent overdensities of z=3.1z=3.1 Lyα\alpha emitters (LAEs) identified in the COSMOS field by the One-hundred-deg2^2 DECam Imaging in Narrowbands (ODIN) survey. These protocluster complexes have been followed up with extensive spectroscopy from Keck, Gemini, and DESI. Using a probabilistic method that combines photometrically selected and spectroscopically confirmed LAEs, we reconstruct the 3D structure of these complexes on scales of \approx50 cMpc. We validate our reconstruction method using the IllustrisTNG300-1 cosmological hydrodynamical simulation and show that it consistently outperforms approaches relying solely on spectroscopic data. The resulting 3D maps reveal that both complexes are irregular and elongated along a single axis, emphasizing the impact of sightline on our perception of structure morphology. The complexes consist of multiple density peaks, ten in COSMOS-z3.1-A and four in COSMOS-z3.1-C. The former is confirmed to be a proto-supercluster, similar to {\it Hyperion} at z=2.4z=2.4 but observed at an even earlier epoch. Multiple `tails' connected to the cores of the density peaks are seen, likely representing cosmic filaments feeding into these extremely overdense regions. The 3D reconstructions further provide strong evidence that Lyα\alpha blobs preferentially reside in the outskirts of the highest density regions. Descendant mass estimates of the density peaks suggest that COSMOS-z3.1-A and COSMOS-z3.1-C will evolve to become ultra-massive structures by z=0z=0, with total masses log(M/M)15.3\log(M/M_\odot) \gtrsim 15.3, exceeding that of Coma.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2511.11826,
  title  = {ODIN: Characterizing the Three-dimensional Structure of Two Protocluster Complexes at $z = 3.1$},
  author = {Vandana Ramakrishnan and Ashley Ortiz and Byeongha Moon and Eunsoo Jun and David Schlegel and Kyoung-Soo Lee and Jessica Nicole Aguilar and Maria Celeste Artale and David Brooks and Maria Candela Cerdosino and Robin Ciardullo and Todd Claybaugh and Andrei Cuceu and Axel de la Macorra and Arjun Dey and Nicole M. Firestone and Andreu Font-Ribera and Jaime E. Forero-Romero and Eric Gawiser and Enrique Gaztañaga and Caryl Gronwall and Lucia Guaita and Gaston Gutierrez and Sungryong Hong and Ho Seong Hwang and Sang Hyeok Im and Paulina Troncoso Iribarren and Woong-Seob Jeong and Dick Joyce and Ankit Kumar and Claire Lamman and Martin Landriau and Seong-Kook Lee and Jaehyun Lee and Aaron Meisner and Ramon Miquel and John Moustakas and Seshadri Nadathur and Gautam Nagaraj and Julie Nantais and Nelson Padilla and Changbom Park and Will Percival and Francisco Prada and Ignasi Pérez-Ràfols and Graziano Rossi and Eusebio Sanchez and Joseph Harry Silber and Hyunmi Song and David Sprayberry and Gregory Tarlé and Francisco Valdes and Yujin Yang and Ann Zabludoff and Hu Zou},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2511.11826},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

28 pages, 15 figures, submitted to ApJ. Website hosting interactive 3D visualizations now available and linked in the manuscript