Large-scale dark matter simulations

Author(s)

Raul E. Angulo, Oliver Hahn

Abstract

We review the field of collisionless numerical simulations for the

large-scale structure of the Universe. We start by providing the main

set of equations solved by these simulations and their connection with

General Relativity. We then recap the relevant numerical approaches:

discretization of the phase-space distribution (focusing on N-body but

including alternatives, e.g., Lagrangian submanifold and

Schrödinger-Poisson) and the respective techniques for their time

evolution and force calculation (Direct summation, mesh techniques, and

hierarchical tree methods). We pay attention to the creation of initial

conditions and the connection with Lagrangian Perturbation Theory. We

then discuss the possible alternatives in terms of the micro-physical

properties of dark matter (e.g., neutralinos, warm dark matter, QCD

axions, Bose-Einstein condensates, and primordial black holes), and

extensions to account for multiple fluids (baryons and neutrinos),

primordial non-Gaussianity and modified gravity. We continue by

discussing challenges involved in achieving highly accurate predictions.

A key aspect of cosmological simulations is the connection to

cosmological observables, we discuss various techniques in this regard:

structure finding, galaxy formation and baryonic modelling, the creation

of emulators and light-cones, and the role of machine learning. We

finalise with a recount of state-of-the-art large-scale simulations and

conclude with an outlook for the next decade.

Organisation(s)

Department of Astrophysics, Department of Mathematics

Journal

Living Reviews in Computational Astrophysics

Volume

8

No. of pages

200

ISSN

2367-3621

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1007/s41115-021-00013-z

Publication date

02-2022

Peer reviewed

Yes

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

103044 Cosmology, 103004 Astrophysics, 103003 Astronomy

Keywords

Portal url