Galaxy Formation

The Galaxy Formation group is developing the numerical tools and physical insights necessary to understand how galaxies form and evolve within a cosmological context.
A fully predictive theory of galaxy formation remains one of the great, unsolved problems of astrophysics. Galaxy formation represents the intersection of many branches of physics from cosmology to plasma physics, and involves a vast range of length and timescales. Our goal is to explain a wide range of observations ranging from high redshift quasars down to the smallest local dwarf galaxies.
Projects
Research Highlights
Zooming in on accretion – II. Cold Circumgalactic Gas Simulated with a super-Lagrangian Refinement Scheme
In this study we explore the complex multi-phase gas of the circumgalactic medium (CGM) surrounding galaxies. We propose and implement…
arXiv:1811.01949A Quantification of the Butterfly Effect in Cosmological Simulations and Implications for Galaxy Scaling Relations
We study the chaotic-like behavior of cosmological simulations by quantifying how minute perturbations grow over time and manifest as macroscopic…
arXiv:1807.07084A massive core for a cluster of galaxies at a redshift of 4.3
Massive galaxy clusters are now found as early as 3 billion years after the Big Bang, containing stars that formed…
Nature