The Cosmic Web Crystal: Ising model for Large Scale Structures
Abstract
If Dark Matter halos possess the gravitational equivalent of an intrinsic magnetic spin, a formal analogy exists between the low redshift behaviour of the Cosmic Web in a flat FLRW background, and a crystal of spins submerged in a thermal reservoir with temperature . We argue that, within the use of the Bianchi type IX geometry to describe the gravitational collapse of matter inhomogeneities, the spins are nothing but the heritage of its underlying symmetry. Therefore, just like electrons in quantum mechanics, these structures may have spin independently from their orbital angular momentum. We explore the phenomenological implications on cosmological scales of a possible late time phase transition of the Cosmic Web towards (the gravitational equivalent of) a ferromagnetic state, described qualitatively using the Ising model in the mean field approximation.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2205.05235,
title = {The Cosmic Web Crystal: Ising model for Large Scale Structures},
author = {Leonardo Giani and Tamara M. Davis},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2205.05235},
year = {2022}
}
Comments
Essay written for the Gravity Research Foundation 2022 Awards for Essays on Gravitation, awarded Honorable Mention