Building Models of the Universe with Hydrodynamic Simulations

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Hydrodynamic simulations have become the cosmologist's tool of choice for modelling the assembly of large-scale structure in the Universe, from galaxies to clusters to the cosmic web. The processes involved are highly non-linear, involving complex interactions between the baryonic and dark matter components. While such interactions are driven by gravity, astrophysical processes such as the formation of stars and super-massive black holes, and the feedback of energy from these sources to the surrounding gas (via powerful galactic outflows) also need to be incorporated to make realistic models of the observed galaxy and cluster population. As part of the Virgo consortium, an international collaboration of computational cosmologists, we are currently developing the next generation of these simulations that exploit recent advances in computing power and simulation codes. In this project, the student will have the opportunity to participate in the development of these new simulations and exploit the resulting data to make new predictions for the properties of galaxy clusters, in particular how the feedback affects the properties of their galaxies and hot gas.