Numerical Simulations of Galaxies

The formation and evolution of galaxies is a very complex problem, tightly linked to the grand-scale evolution of the Universe itself, and the formation and evolution of the tiny billions of stars within the galaxies themselves.

This tight interplay spans many orders of magnitudes in terms of densities, scales and time, making it one of the most challenging topics in astrophysics.

At Cardiff, we use arepo numerical simulations of galaxies issued from cosmological simulations, to follow and understand their formation, growth and evolution, and the dependency on their local inter-galactic environment. We also perform tailored numerical simulations of individual nearby spiral galaxies, at incredibly high resolution, in order to capture the detailed physics of star formation (at sub-parsec scales) within a large-scale galactic context.