Related papers: Improved Ways to Compare Simulations to Data
I review the standard paradigm for understanding the formation and evolution of cosmic structure, based on the gravitational instability of dark matter, but many variations on this basic theme are viable. Despite the great progress that has…
Modeling galaxy formation in a cosmological context presents one of the greatest challenges in astrophysics today, due to the vast range of scales and numerous physical processes involved. Here we review the current status of models that…
The standard model of large scale structure is considered, in which the structure originates as a Gaussian adiabatic density perturbation with a nearly scale invariant spectrum. The basic theoretical tool of cosmological perturbation theory…
After two decades of direct dynamical simulation of large-scale structure in the universe, it is safe to say the subject is now mature. Still, there are parts of the problem that are less well developed than others. In general, the…
Surveys of the local and distant Universe are the means to test and improve our models of galaxy formation. Substantial successes in the models are evident, while there is also considerable recent progress in identifying what remains to be…
Cosmological simulations are a powerful tool to advance our understanding of galaxy formation and many simulations model key properties of real galaxies. A question that naturally arises for such simulations in light of high-quality…
We calculate predictions from defect models of structure formation for both the matter and Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) over all observable scales. Our results point to a serious problem reconciling the observed large-scale galaxy…
The gravitationally-driven evolution of cold dark matter dominates the formation of structure in the Universe over a wide range of length scales. While the longest scales can be treated by perturbation theory, a fully quantitative…
Simulations from the scales of isolated galaxies to clouds have been instrumental in informing us about molecular cloud formation and evolution. Simulations are able to investigate the roles of gravity, feedback, turbulence, heating and…
Cosmological galaxy formation simulations can now produce rich and diverse ensembles of galaxy histories. These simulated galaxy histories, taken all together, provide an answer to the question "how do galaxies form?" for the models used to…
This paper reviews selected aspects of the growth of cosmological structure, covering the following general areas: (1) expected characteristics of linear density perturbations according to various candidate theories for the origin of…
I review a number of tests of theories for structure formation. Large-scale flows and IRAS galaxies indicate a high density parameter $\Omega \simeq 1$, in accord with inflationary predictions, but it is not clear how this meshes with the…
We compute, including a current state-of-the-art treatment of hydrodynamical processes, heating and cooling, a variety of cosmological models into the extreme nonlinear phase to enable comparisons with observations. First, we note the…
The clustering amplitude of galaxies depends on their intrinsic luminosity. We compare the properties of publicly available galaxy formation models with clustering measurements from the two-degree field galaxy redshift survey. The model…
In a series of three papers, we introduced a novel cluster formation model that describes the formation, growth, and disruption of star clusters in high-resolution cosmological simulations. We tested this model on a Milky Way-sized galaxy…
Dark matter simulations can serve as a basis for creating galaxy histories via the galaxy-dark matter connection. Here, one such model by Becker (2015) is implemented with several variations on three different dark matter simulations.…
We study structure formation in a set of cosmological simulations to uncover the scales in the initial density field that gave rise to the formation of present-day structures. Our simulations share a common primordial power spectrum (here…
In this review, we describe our current understanding of cluster formation: from the general picture of collapse from initial density fluctuations in an expanding Universe to detailed simulations of cluster formation including the effects…
Cosmic structures at large scales represent the earliest and most extended form of matter condensation. In this lecture we review the application of the methods and concepts of modern statistical physics to these structures. This leads to a…
An overview over the current status of modeling galaxies by means of numerical simulations is given. After a short description of how galaxies form in hierarchically clustering scenarios, success and failures of current simulations are…