The David and Edith Harris Physics Colloquium Series

Speaker: Mark Vogelsberger | MIT Physics

"Exploring the Universe with Cosmological Simulations"

Over the last decades, cosmological supercomputer simulations have emerged as a crucial theoretical framework and tool to study the formation of structures and galaxies in the Universe. Such simulations can now predict a plethora of properties of galaxies that agree remarkably well with observational data, and they, therefore, provide an ideal testbed for exploring theoretical models of galaxy formation. In my talk, I will highlight the enormous progress of this field over the last years and present the methods and predictions of these simulations. I will focus on the Illustris simulation and the novel IllustrisTNG project currently representing the largest and most detailed galaxy formation simulations. After demonstrating the success of galaxy formation theories and simulations, I will discuss their limitations and directions for further improvements over the next couple of years.

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The lecture will take place in 10-250, starting at 4pm.
Pre-Colloquium Social in room 4-349 will begin at 3:30pm, refreshments will be served.

For questions, contact Ryan Higgins at higginsr@mit.edu

See future Physics Colloquium lectures at: https://web.mit.edu/physics/events/colloquia.html