RSAA Colloquium: Dr Benedetta Vulcani (INAF)

https://benedettavulcani.wixsite.com/thisisme/home

Galaxies under pressure: Environmental transformations from clusters to the cosmic web

Galaxies are not isolated island universes —they evolve within a dynamic cosmic ecosystem where environment plays a pivotal role in shaping their life cycles. While galaxy clusters are well-known for hosting dramatic transformation events —such as rapid gas stripping and star formation quenching— the influence of environment extends far beyond these dense nodes. 

In this talk, I will show how galaxies evolve across a wide range of environments, from the extreme conditions inside clusters to the more subtle yet significant influences in the field, groups, and filaments of the cosmic web. Using both integrated and spatially resolved observations, I will explore the variety of physical processes at play: from ram pressure stripping and starvation to gas accretion and cosmic web stripping. I will highlight how even galaxies outside clusters can experience profound changes due to their position in large-scale structures. Emphasis will be placed on the power and limitations of optical imaging to identify the acting physical mechanisms and on the transformative insights enabled by IFU spectroscopy. This comprehensive view underscores the necessity of understanding environment-driven evolution not as a cluster-exclusive phenomenon, but as a multi-scale process critical to galaxy transformation throughout the Universe.