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SUMMARY:Cosmological simulations of our Universe: computational methods\, 
 challenges and future prospects - Dr Debora Sijacki (Institute of Astronom
 y\, University of Cambridge)
DTSTART:20181026T120000Z
DTEND:20181026T130000Z
UID:TALK112408@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Joseph Ibrahim
DESCRIPTION:Cosmological simulations of structure formation have undergone
  rapid development over the last decade and evolved from purely gravitatio
 nal computations of large scale structure to full hydrodynamical simulatio
 ns which include a plethora of complex baryonic physics. Recent successes 
 of these simulations have been impressive\, with several independent group
 s obtaining models of present day galaxies in broad accord with observatio
 n\, which has been a long standing goal for more than 20 years. Yet\, due 
 to many unknowns and the prohibitively large mass and spatial resolutions 
 needed to solve the problem ab initio\, cosmological simulations have adop
 ted so-called "sub-grid" physics models\, which are employed on small\, un
 resolved scales. These invariably contain a number of free or poorly const
 rained parameters which can crucially affect the main simulation results. 
 In this talk I will review numerical techniques employed to perform cosmol
 ogical simulations\, method uncertainties and how much cosmological simula
 tions are subject to fine tuning due to these "sub-grid" models\, which co
 nsequences this has for our understanding of the underlying physics and wh
 at are the future prospects of moving towards ab initio simulations.
LOCATION:JDB Seminar Room\, CUED
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