The First Billion Years: a Petascale Universe of Galaxies and Quasars

哈勃深/超深场是标志性的，几乎可以肯定是研究最多的太空望远镜观测。从哈勃望远镜的继任者詹姆斯·韦伯望远镜，到大型天文望远镜(LSST)，再到WFIRST卫星，从目前和计划中的大量仪器进行的即将到来的观测也将有机会到达相同极端级别或更深的星系和黑洞，但覆盖范围空前广泛。这将开启对红移最高的星系和类星体的研究，使现代宇宙学成为一门精密科学的统计学研究。该项目旨在计算理论预测，以便使用蓝水超级计算机与目前和即将进行的高红移宇宙观测取得联系。该项目将以前所未有的体积和分辨率扩展蓝潮模拟，以涵盖宇宙历史前10亿年的演变。目标是显著增加这一计算对社区的科学影响。重要的是，该项目将尝试与红移大于7的类星体的观测取得联系(虽然模拟现在已经运行到红移等于8)。此外，该项目将使用蓝潮作为探路器，为未来星系形成的宇宙流体动力学模拟开发方法/计算，其体积和分辨率适合于为下一代调查创建模拟。这项拟议工作的影响将远远超出蓝潮。大型流体动力学模拟将在天体物理和宇宙学的主要观测项目的所有阶段发挥越来越大的作用。例如，LSST将需要一个以蓝潮分辨率覆盖整个可观测宇宙的重要部分并持续到今天(一个完全由流体动力学计算主导的时代)的模拟。该项目将建立一个理论框架，以了解星系在高红移宇宙演化中的作用。不同的科学家群体对类星体和星系组装的行为历史感兴趣，包括宇宙学家、星系演化界和高能天体物理学家，因此这一结果将对许多不同的科学界产生广泛的影响。此外，该项目开发的图像和目录生成以及数据库技术将加强该项目已经在进行的与计算机科学、机器学习和统计的协同活动。此外，通过让本科生和研究生参与这项研究，该项目将具有强大的教育成分。最后，该项目提议使用可视化和交互式Gigapan软件进行外联。

The Hubble Deep/Ultra Deep fields are iconic, and almost certainly themost studied space telescope observations. Upcoming observations from an enormous range ofcurrent and planned instruments, from the successor to Hubble, The James Webb Telescope, tothe Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), to the WFIRST Satellite will also have theopportunity to reach galaxies and black holes at the same extreme magnitudes or deeper, butover unprecedentedly wide fields. This will open up the study of the highest redshift galaxiesand quasars to the type of statistical studies that have made modern cosmology a precisionscience. This project aims to compute theoretical predictions to make contact with currentand upcoming observations of the high-redshift universe using the Blue Waters supercomputer. The project will extend the BlueTides simulation, with an unprecedentedvolume and resolution, to cover the evolution of the first billion years of cosmic history.The goal is to significantly increase the scientific impact of this calculation to the community.Importantly, the project will attempt to make contactwith observations of quasars, which have not been discovered at redshift greater than 7 (whilethe simulation now has run to redshift equal 8). In addition the project will be using BlueTides asa path-finder for developing methods/calculations for future cosmological hydrodynamical simulationsof galaxy formation with volumes and resolutions suitable for creating mocks for next generationsurveys. The impact of the proposed work will extend way beyond BlueTides. Large hydrodynamical simulationswill be more and more useful in all stages of major observational projects in astrophysicsand cosmology. For example, a simulation that covers a significant fraction of the entireobservable universe with BlueTides resolution and runs to the present day (an epoch whichis fully dominated by the hydrodynamic computations) will be needed for LSST.The project will establish a theoretical framework for understanding the role of galaxiesin the evolution of the universe at high redshifts. Different communitiesof scientists are interested in the behavior history of quasars and galaxy assembly, includingcosmologists, the galaxy evolution community and high energy astrophysicists, so the resultswould have a wide impact across many different scientific communities. Additionally, the image and catalog generation, anddatabase techniques developed by the project willstrengthen the project already on-going synergistic activities with computer science, machine learningand statistics. Furthermore, the project will have a strong education component by involving undergraduateand graduate students in this research. Finally, the project propose to perform outreach usingthe visualization and interactive Gigapan software.