Particle Physics Seminar

Cosmological simulations are used for a variety of applications. Indeed progress in the study of large scale structures and galaxy formation would have been very limited without this tool. I will begin with an overview of cosmological simulations and then discuss recent results from the gigaparsec scale cosmological hydrodynamical simulation: MassiveBlack, which includes a self-consistent model for star formation, black hole accretion and associated feedback. The volume and resolution of MassiveBlack are well suited for studying the formation of the first luminous quasars and their host galaxies. We find that steady high density cold gas flows are responsible in sustaining critical accretion rates and hence rapid growth consistent with the existence of billion mass black holes at z ~ 6. This cold flow driven scenario is also responsible for assembling the host galaxy which goes through a period of massive star formation comparable to starburst systems at lower redshifts. MassiveBlack predicts a deviation from the local Mbh-sigma and Mbh-Mstar relation implying that black holes are relatively more massive for a given stellar host at these redshifts. We show that simulated properties of quasars and their host galaxies are consistent with observations. If time permits I will discuss preliminary results of clustering in the Lyman-alpha forest at z >= 2 from another large hydrodynamic simulation.