Research

In the 1980s, astronomers realised that galaxies are not randomly spread out across the Universe: they form a vast, interconnected structure we now call the cosmic web. This web is made up of clusters of galaxies at the nodes, connected by filaments, walls, and empty regions called voids. It’s shaped by gravity, as dark matter and gas come together to form this large-scale pattern, with galaxies tracing its structure.

Over the past few decades, galaxy surveys have helped us map this web in increasing detail. We’ve learned a lot about dense regions like galaxy clusters, but the filaments that connect them are still not well understood. 

My research focuses on understanding these filaments: how they form, what they’re made of, how to detect them, and how they influence the galaxies that live inside them.

When we zoom into the regions around individual galaxies, we find that the cosmic web doesn’t disappear — it just gets finer. Galaxies are often connected to small, narrow filaments that are part of this same large-scale structure, just at a different scale. These local filaments can act as channels, bringing in gas and matter that help galaxies grow and form stars.

In my research, I study how galaxies interact with these small-scale structures, how their location in the local web might affect their properties, and how gas moves through these filaments into galaxies. This is a challenging area, because these environments are hard to observe directly, so I rely on simulations to trace these connections and look for ways to compare them with data.

Understanding the local web around galaxies helps us build a more complete picture of galaxy evolution, not just in terms of internal processes, but also in relation to the larger structures they’re part of.