Numerical Simulations in Astronomy

This week's Phys 10 Undergraduate Seminar series features Kyle Oman

Numerical simulations are used in astronomy to model a wide range of physical scales, from small stellar systems to the largest cosmological volumes feasible with modern computers. Cosmological simulations are a particularly challenging problem because we wish to model both gravity, which acts across very large distances, and other interactions such as gas flows, star formation or cooling which are much more localized. I will give an outline of the problems that simulations aim to solve. I will then discuss some of the methods used to simulate gravity and baryon physics in modern codes. Finally, I will show some (visually impressive) examples of state-of-the-art simulations and their applications.