Numerical simulations have become one of the key tools for cosmologists and astrophysicists to test their models and confront them to observations. Over the last decade, many large simulations have reached great agreement with observational surveys of the galaxy population, opening era where precision tests of cosmology can be performed. In this workshop, we will review the basic principles and numerical techniques used in these simulations and review some of the main results. This is designed to give a flavour of what is done behind the scene to produce the big and small simulations that are used routinely nowadays to help understand and interpret observations.

We will follow this with a hands-on session where we will download and compile a cosmological simulation code on their own laptop; run a small simulation and analyse the results.

Programme

• Introduction to simulations for cosmology and galaxy formation: What are cosmological simulations? What are they used for and what have we learned so far?
• Overview of numerical techniques: What are the methods used for cosmological simulations?

Invited speakers

Scientific organisers

Matthieu Schaller (Leiden Observatory)

Contact

schaller @ strw.leidenuniv.nl