Astronomy Colloquium - John Forbes

Shown is a projection of the baryonic density field, where image brightness indicates the projected mass density and color hue visualizes the mean projected gas temperature. The displayed region extends by about 1.2 billion lightyears from left to right. The underlying calculation TNG300 shown here is the presently largest magneto-hydrodynamic simulation of galaxy formation, containing more than 30 billion resolution elements. Credit: IllustrisTNG Collaboration
January 19, 2023
3:00PM - 4:00PM
In Person & Online: Chem & Biomolecular Eng & Chem (CBEC) - Room 130; Zoom Webinar

Date Range
2023-01-19 15:00:00 2023-01-19 16:00:00 Astronomy Colloquium - John Forbes Title: Towards a Theory of Galaxy Formation in the Era of Good-Looking Simulations Abstract: In the past decade cosmological hydrodynamic simulations have produced large populations of galaxies that look a great deal like galaxies in the real Universe. I will argue that, despite their successes and versatility, these simulations are unlikely to ever reliably constrain key ingredients of galaxy formation like the properties of galactic winds and accretion. Fast, expressive, comprehensive new models are necessary to fit current and forthcoming observational data. I will show promising steps along three distinct paths towards building such models: incorporating lessons from simulations, building and perturbing equilibrium models, and fitting the data hierarchically. Speaker: John Forbes (Simons Foundation) In Person & Online: Chem & Biomolecular Eng & Chem (CBEC) - Room 130; Zoom Webinar America/New_York public

Title: Towards a Theory of Galaxy Formation in the Era of Good-Looking Simulations

Abstract:

In the past decade cosmological hydrodynamic simulations have produced large populations of galaxies that look a great deal like galaxies in the real Universe. I will argue that, despite their successes and versatility, these simulations are unlikely to ever reliably constrain key ingredients of galaxy formation like the properties of galactic winds and accretion. Fast, expressive, comprehensive new models are necessary to fit current and forthcoming observational data. I will show promising steps along three distinct paths towards building such models: incorporating lessons from simulations, building and perturbing equilibrium models, and fitting the data hierarchically.

Speaker: John Forbes (Simons Foundation)

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