Simulations of Early Galaxy Formation

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。戴夫博士和他的团队将使用计算机模拟来跟踪大爆炸后10 - 20亿年的星系形成过程，当时宇宙气体被新形成的恒星和活跃的星系核发出的紫外线再电离。他和他的团队将把计算暗物质和气体运动的现有代码与他们最近开发的辐射传输代码结合起来。它们将包括冷却低于10,000K的处理，并为辐射传输计算实现自适应网格细化。恒星形成对周围气体的影响是通过动量驱动的风模型来计算的，该模型经过调整，以匹配星系和周围气体在最近时期的演化。该团队将制作新形成星系和星系间气体的模拟观测目录。这些数据将提供给社区，用于规划下一代地面和天基望远镜的观测。研究生将通过参与研究而得到训练。戴夫博士将为非天文学专业的学生开设一门关于天文数据档案使用的课程。这将首先作为设在加纳海岸角大学的亚利桑那大学海外学习项目的一部分，由他帮助组织。预算中包括对美国学生的旅行补助，这些学生是根据少数族裔身份和学习成绩挑选出来的。来自海岸角大学的学生也将参加。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).Dr Dave and his team will use computer simulations to follow the formation of galaxies through the period 1-2 billion years after the Big Bang, when the cosmic gas was reionized by ultraviolet light from newly-formed stars and the active nuclei of galaxies. He and his team will combine an existing code that computes the motion of dark matter and gas with their recently-developed radiative transfer code. They will include a treatment of cooling below 10,000K, and implement adaptive mesh refinement for the radiative transfer calculation. The effect of star formation on the surrounding gas is calculated with a momentum-driven wind model that is tuned to match the evolution of galaxies and the gas around them at more recent times. The team will produce catalogs of simulated observations of newly-forming galaxies and the intergalactic gas. These will be made available to the community for planning observations with the next generation of ground- and space-based telescopes.A graduate student will be trained by participating in the research. Dr Dave will develop a course for non-astronomy majors on the use of astronomical data archives. This will be presented first as part of a U. Arizona Study Abroad program based at the University of Cape Coast in Ghana, which he is helping to organize. The budget includes travel grants for US students, selected on the basis of minority status and academic record. Students from the University of Cape Coast will also attend.