Related papers: Numerical Simulations Unravel the Cosmic Web
Black holes represent extreme conditions of physical laws. Being predicted about a century ago, they are now accepted as astrophysical reality by most of the scientific community. Only recently more direct evidence of their existence has…
Quantum networks play an extremely important role in quantum information science, with application to quantum communication, computation, metrology and fundamental tests. One of the key challenges for implementing a quantum network is to…
The intergalactic medium - the cosmic gas that fills the great spaces between the galaxies - is affected by processes ranging from quantum fluctuations in the very early universe to radiative emission from newly-formed stars. This gives the…
Reactions between atomic nuclei are measured in great detail in terrestrial laboratory experiments; transferring and extrapolating this knowledge to how the same reactions act within cosmic environments presents major challenges.…
The cosmic reionization of hydrogen was the last major phase transition in the evolution of the universe, which drastically changed the ionization and thermal conditions in the cosmic gas. To the best of our knowledge today, this process…
Astronomy and cosmology have embraced the internet. We routinely and successfully use the internet as a repository for sharing code, publications and information, and as a computational resource. However the interactive nature of the web,…
Cosmic structure simulations have improved enormously over the past decade, both in terms of the resolution which can be achieved, and with the addition of hydrodynamic and other techniques to formerly purely gravitational methods. This is…
With the era of precision cosmology upon us, and upcoming surveys expected to further improve the precision of our observations below the percent level, ensuring the accuracy of our theoretical cosmological model is of the utmost…
I discuss some aspects of the use of computers in Relativity, Astrophysics and Cosmology. For each section I provide two examples representative of the field, including gravitational collapse, black hole imagery, supernovae explosions,…
Simulations inform all aspects of modern astrophysical research, ranging in scale from 1D and 2D test problems that can run in seconds on an astronomer's laptop all the way to large-scale 3D calculations that run on the largest…
This article reviews the prevailing paradigm for how galaxies and larger structures formed in the universe: gravitational instability. Basic observational facts are summarized to motivate the standard cosmological framework underlying most…
We study the behaviour and consequences of cosmic string networks in contracting universes. They approximately behave during the collapse phase as a radiation fluids. Scaling solutions describing this are derived and tested against…
Interactive visualization and simulation of astrophysical phenomena help astronomers and enable digital planetariums and television documentaries to take their spectators on a journey into deep space to explore the astronomical wonders of…
Using a series of cosmological simulations that includes one dark-matter-only (DM-only) run, one gas cooling-star formation-supernovae feedback (CSF) run and one that additionally includes feedback from active galactic nuclei (AGNs), we…
This paper explores the idea that the universe is a virtual reality created by information processing, and relates this strange idea to the findings of modern physics about the physical world. The virtual reality concept is familiar to us…
Most cosmological structures in the universe spin. Although structures in the universe form on a wide variety of scales from small dwarf galaxies to large super clusters, the generation of angular momentum across these scales is poorly…
The large-scale structure of the Universe is characterised by a web-like structure made of voids, sheets, filaments, and knots. The structure of this so-called cosmic web is dictated by the local velocity shear tensor. In particular, the…
This article reviews the history of digital computation, and investigates just how far the concept of computation can be taken. In particular, I address the question of whether the universe itself is in fact a giant computer, and if so,…
We describe large scale structure at high redshift in terms of the Cosmic Web picture for {S,Lambda,O,H}CDM models: how galactic-scale ``peak-patches'', filaments and membranes create an interconnected intergalactic medium. The ideas are…
Universe structure emerges in the unreduced, complex-dynamical interaction process with the simplest initial configuration (two attracting homogeneous fields). The unreduced interaction analysis avoiding any perturbative model gives…