Large-Scale Structure in COSMOS-Web: Tracing Galaxy Evolution in the Cosmic Web up to $z \sim 7$ with the Largest JWST Survey
Authors
Hossein Hatamnia
Bahram Mobasher
Sina Taamoli
Jeyhan S. Kartaltepe
Caitlin M. Casey
Hollis B. Akins
Malte Brinch
Nima Chartab
Nicole E. Drakos
Andreas L. Faisst
Steven L. Finkelstein
Maximilien Franco
Finn Giddings
Ghassem Gozaliasl
Ali Hadi
Aryana Haghjoo
Santosh Harish
Olivier Ilbert
Pascale L. Jablonka
Shuowen Jin
Ali Ahmad Khostovan
Anton M. Koekemoer
Ronaldo Laishram
Daizhong Liu
Matteo Maturi
Henry Joy McCracken
Crystal L. Martin
Lauro Moscardini
Diana Scognamiglio
Marko Shuntov
Greta Toni
Alexander de la Vega
John R. Weaver
Lilan Yang
Abstract
We present a reconstruction of the large-scale structure using the James Webb Space Telescope's (JWST) COSMOS-Web program to trace environmentally driven galaxy evolution up to $z\sim7$. We applied a weighted kernel density estimation method to 160,000 galaxies with robust photometric redshifts. We find that stellar mass has a positive correlation with density at all redshifts, stronger for quiescent galaxies (QGs) at $z\lesssim2.5$, while at higher redshifts ($2.5\lesssim z\lesssim5.5$) this trend is confined to extreme overdense environments, consistent with early mass assembly in proto-clusters. The star-formation rate (SFR) shows a negative trend with density for QGs at $z\lesssim1.2$, reversing at $z\gtrsim1.8$, while star-forming galaxies (SFGs) show a mild positive correlation up to $z\sim5.5$. The specific SFR remains nearly flat for SFGs and declines with density for QGs at $z\lesssim1.2$. Moreover, mass and environmental quenching efficiencies show that mass-driven processes dominate at $z\gtrsim2.5$, the two processes act with comparable strength between $0.8\lesssim z\lesssim2.5$, and environmental quenching becomes stronger for low-mass galaxies ($M_\star\lesssim10^{10} M_\odot$) at $z\lesssim0.8$. These findings reveal that large-scale structure drives galaxy evolution by enhancing early mass assembly in dense regions and increasingly suppressing star formation in low-mass systems at later times, establishing the environmental role of the cosmic web across cosmic history. COSMOS-Web, the largest JWST survey, provides accurate and deep photometric redshifts, reaching 80% mass completeness at $\log(M_\star/M_\odot)\sim8.7$ at $z\sim7$, enabling the first view of how environments shaped galaxy evolution from the epoch of reionization to the present day.
