Introducing the Illustris Project: simulating the coevolution of dark and visible matter in the Universe
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Vogelsberger_Introducing the Illustris.pdf
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Author(s)
Vogelsberger, Mark
Genel, Shy
Springel, Volker
Torrey, Paul
Sijacki, Debora
Xu, Dandan
Snyder, Greg
Nelson, Dylan
Hernquist, Lars
Date Issued
August 2014
Journal
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Citation
Vogelsberger, M., S. Genel, V. Springel, P. Torrey, D. Sijacki, D. Xu, G. Snyder, D. Nelson, and L. Hernquist. “Introducing the Illustris Project: Simulating the Coevolution of Dark and Visible Matter in the Universe.” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 444, no. 2 (August 26, 2014): 1518–1547.
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Author's final manuscript
Abstract
We introduce the Illustris Project, a series of large-scale hydrodynamical simulations of galaxy formation. The highest resolution simulation, Illustris-1, covers a volume of (106.5 Mpc)[superscript 3], has a dark mass resolution of 6.26 × 10[superscript 6]M[subscript ⊙], and an initial baryonic matter mass resolution of 1.26 × 10[superscript 6]M[subscript ⊙]. At z = 0 gravitational forces are softened on scales of 710 pc, and the smallest hydrodynamical gas cells have an extent of 48 pc. We follow the dynamical evolution of 2 × 1820[superscript 3] resolution elements and in addition passively evolve 1820[superscript 3] Monte Carlo tracer particles reaching a total particle count of more than 18 billion. The galaxy formation model includes: primordial and metal-line cooling with self-shielding corrections, stellar evolution, stellar feedback, gas recycling, chemical enrichment, supermassive black hole growth, and feedback from active galactic nuclei. Here we describe the simulation suite, and contrast basic predictions of our model for the present-day galaxy population with observations of the local universe. At z = 0 our simulation volume contains about 40 000 well-resolved galaxies covering a diverse range of morphologies and colours including early-type, late-type and irregular galaxies. The simulation reproduces reasonably well the cosmic star formation rate density, the galaxy luminosity function, and baryon conversion efficiency at z = 0. It also qualitatively captures the impact of galaxy environment on the red fractions of galaxies. The internal velocity structure of selected well-resolved disc galaxies obeys the stellar and baryonic Tully–Fisher relation together with flat circular velocity curves. In the well-resolved regime, the simulation reproduces the observed mix of early-type and late-type galaxies. Our model predicts a halo mass dependent impact of baryonic effects on the halo mass function and the masses of haloes caused by feedback from supernova and active galactic nuclei.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stu1536
