Shapefinders: A new shape diagnostic for large scale structure
Abstract
We construct a set of shape-finders which determine shapes of compact surfaces (iso-density surfaces in galaxy surveys or N-body simulations) without fitting them to ellipsoidal configurations as done earlier. The new indicators arise from simple, geometrical considerations and are derived from fundamental properties of a surface such as its volume, surface area, integrated mean curvature and connectivity characterized by the Genus. These `Shapefinders' could be used to diagnose the presence of filaments, pancakes and ribbons in large scale structure. Their lower-dimensional generalization may be useful for the study of two-dimensional distributions such as temperature maps of the Cosmic Microwave Background.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/9801053,
title = {Shapefinders: A new shape diagnostic for large scale structure},
author = {Varun Sahni and B. S. Sathyaprakash and Sergei F. Shandarin},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/9801053},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
Latex (8 pages with aaspp.sty) requires \usepackage{graphicx}). To appear in ApJ Lett