SCIENCE SEMINAR
The Millennium Simulation
Caroline Foster
Bishop's University
Friday, February 2, 2007
1:30 - 2:30 PM
Hamilton Room 302
A scientific theory is only valid as long as it is successful at explaining experimental observations. The Cold Dark Matter Model together with cosmic inflation is the most widely accepted model for the origin of our Universe.
Is it successful at explaining the structures that observers have been able to detect? With the ever increasing data coming from observers, theoreticians have decided to test the Cold Dark Matter Model against observations. The Millennium Simulation is the largest simulation of the growth of dark matter structure ever performed. It is an N-body simulation with N=21603 particles evolving from redshifts z=107 to z=0 in a cube 500 h-1 Mpc wide produced over 20 TB of raw data.
In this talk, I will discuss the successes and failures of the Millennium Simulation, and the vCDM, at explaining the structures observed in our Universe.
THIS TALK IS INTENDED FOR PHYSICS UNIVERSITY STUDENTS
