Modelling the physics of galaxy formation in a expanding Universe

Julien Devriendt est professeur d'Astrophysique à l'Université d'Oxford.
"In this talk, I will present state-of-the-art numerical efforts to capture the physics of galaxy formation and evolution in the explicit framework of the standard cosmological model, consisting of an expanding Universe accelerated by a cosmological constant and with a mass content dominated by collisionless cold dark matter. More specifically, I will discuss cosmological hydrodynamics simulations of two sorts. In the first part of the presentation I will review large volume simulations which allow one to perform a statistical comparison with observations but only reach a resolution comparable to the size of galaxies (see e.g. www.horizon-simulation.org). In a second part, I will focus on "zoom" simulations of individual galaxies performed at a resolution which resolves the giant molecular clouds where clusters of stars are born. I will highlight how such simulations permit a better modelling of the physics of star formation and stellar feedback and discuss the impact this has on the integrated properties of galaxies."
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