[en] The shapes of cosmic voids are prone to distortions caused by external tidal forces since their low densities imply a lower internal resistance. This susceptibility of the void shapes to tidal distortions makes them useful as indicators of large-scale tidal and density fields, despite the practical difficulty in defining them. Using the void catalog constructed by Pan et al. from the Seventh Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS DR7), we detect a clear $4\mathrm{\sigma <!--\; ??\; -->}$ signal of spatial correlations of the void shapes on a scale of $20h^{-<!--\; ???\; -->1}$ Mpc and show that the signal is robust against the projection of the void shapes onto the plane of sky. By constructing a simple analytic model for the void shape correlation, within the framework of tidal torque theory, we demonstrate that the void shape correlation function scales linearly with the two-point correlation function of the linear density field. We also find direct observational evidence for the cross-correlation of the void shapes with the large-scale velocity shear field that was linearly reconstructed by Lee et al. from SDSS DR7. We discuss the possibility of using the void shape correlation function to break the degeneracy between the density parameter and the power spectrum amplitude and to independently constrain the neutrino mass as well.

[en] The bridge effect of void filaments is a phrase coined by Park and Lee to explain the correlations found in a numerical experiment between the luminosity of the void galaxies and the degree of straightness of their host filaments. Their numerical finding implies that a straight void filament provides a narrow channel for the efficient transportation of gas and matter particles from the surroundings into void galaxies. Analyzing the Sloan void catalog constructed by Pan et al., we identify the filamentary structures in void regions and determine the specific size of each void filament as a measure of its straightness. To avoid possible spurious signals caused by Malmquist bias, we consider only those void filaments whose redshifts are in the range $0⩽<!--\; ???\; -->z⩽<!--\; ???\; -->0.02$ and find a clear tendency that the void galaxies located in the straighter filaments are on average more luminous, which is in qualitative agreement with the numerical prediction. It is also shown that the strength of correlation increases with the number of member galaxies in the void filaments, which can be understood physically on the grounds that the more stretched filaments can connect the dense surroundings even to galaxies located deep in the central parts of the voids. This observational evidence may provide a key clue to the puzzling issue of why the void galaxies have higher specific star formation rates and bluer colors than their wall counterparts.

[en] We measure the star formation properties of two large samples of galaxies from the SDSS in large-scale cosmic voids on timescales of 10 and 100 Myr, using H α emission line strengths and GALEX FUV fluxes, respectively. The first sample consists of 109,818 optically selected galaxies. We find that void galaxies in this sample have higher specific star formation rates (SSFRs; star formation rates per unit stellar mass) than similar stellar mass galaxies in denser regions. The second sample is a subset of the optically selected sample containing 8070 galaxies with reliable H i detections from ALFALFA. For the full H i detected sample, SSFRs do not vary systematically with large-scale environment. However, investigating only the H i detected dwarf galaxies reveals a trend toward higher SSFRs in voids. Furthermore, we estimate the star formation rate per unit H i mass (known as the star formation efficiency; SFE) of a galaxy, as a function of environment. For the overall H i detected population, we notice no environmental dependence. Limiting the sample to dwarf galaxies still does not reveal a statistically significant difference between SFEs in voids versus walls. These results suggest that void environments, on average, provide a nurturing environment for dwarf galaxy evolution allowing for higher specific star formation rates while forming stars with similar efficiencies to those in walls.

[en] We present a study of spectral properties of galaxies in underdense large-scale structures, or voids. Our void galaxy sample (75,939 galaxies) is selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7 with $z<<!--\; <\; -->0.107$. We find that there are no significant differences in the luminosities, stellar masses, stellar populations, and specific star formation rates between void galaxies of specific spectral types and their wall counterparts. However, the fraction of star-forming galaxies in voids is significantly higher ($⩾<!--\; ???\; -->9\mathrm{\%<!--\; \%\; -->}$) than that in walls. Void galaxies, when considering all spectral types, are slightly fainter, are less massive, have younger stellar populations, and have higher specific star formation rates than wall galaxies. These minor differences are totally caused by the higher fraction of star-forming galaxies in voids. We confirm that active galactic nuclei (AGNs) exist in voids, already found by Constantin et al. in 2008, with similar abundance to that in walls. Type I AGNs contribute ∼1%–2% of void galaxies, similar to their fraction in walls. The intrinsic [O iii] luminosities, spanning over ${10}^6-<!--\; ???\; -->{10}^9{L}_{\odot <!--\; ???\; -->}$, and Eddington ratios are similar comparing our void AGNs versus wall AGNs. Small-scale statistics show that all spectral types of void galaxies are less clustered than their counterparts in walls. Major merger may not be the dominant trigger of black hole accretion in the luminosity range we probe. Our study implies that the growth of black holes relies weakly on large-scale structures.