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

哈勃深场/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，到大型综合巡天望远镜（LSST），再到WFIRST卫星，即将进行的大量现有和计划中的仪器的观测也将有机会到达同样极端量级或更深的星系和黑洞，但视野空前广阔。这将使对最高红移星系和类星体的研究向统计学研究的方向发展，而统计学研究已经使现代宇宙学成为一门精确的科学。该项目旨在通过蓝水超级计算机计算理论预测，与当前和即将进行的高红移宇宙观测相联系。该项目将以前所未有的体积和分辨率扩展“蓝潮”模拟，以涵盖宇宙历史最初10亿年的演变。我们的目标是显著提高这种计算对社会的科学影响。重要的是，该项目将尝试与类星体的观测联系起来，类星体还没有在红移大于7的情况下被发现（而模拟现在已经运行到红移等于8）。此外，该项目将使用BlueTides作为探路者，为未来星系形成的宇宙学流体动力学模拟开发方法/计算，其体积和分辨率适合为下一代调查创建模型。拟议工作的影响将远远超出“蓝潮”。大型流体动力学模拟在天体物理学和宇宙学重大观测项目的各个阶段将越来越有用。例如，用BlueTides分辨率覆盖整个可观测宇宙的很大一部分并运行到今天（一个完全由流体动力学计算主导的时代）的模拟将需要用于LSST。该项目将建立一个理论框架，以理解星系在高红移宇宙演化中的作用。不同的科学家团体对类星体和星系组合的行为历史感兴趣，包括宇宙学家、星系演化团体和高能天体物理学家，因此这些结果将对许多不同的科学团体产生广泛的影响。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、机器学习和统计学的协同活动。此外，该项目将有很强的教育组成部分，涉及本科生和研究生的研究。最后，该项目建议使用可视化和交互式Gigapan软件进行外展。

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.