Petascale adaptive mesh simulations of Milky Way-type galaxies and their environments

Brian O'Shea, Michigan State University

Usage Details

Brian O'Shea, David Collins, Britton Smith, John Wise, Cameron Hummels, Brian Crosby, Devin Silvia, Daegene Koh, Damien Denis, Jacob Kneibel

This project uses Blue Waters to study the formation of Milky Way-type galaxies and their environments using adaptive mesh refinement simulations that include both radiation transport and magnetic fields. These simulations address some of the most pressing unanswered questions regarding the formation of galaxies and their interactions with their environments, including:

1. How does the gas that is critical for star formation get from the cosmic web into the central regions of galaxies, and how is gas returned to the intergalactic medium?
2. How did the earliest progenitors of the Milky Way galaxy form, and where can we find their stellar remnants today?
3. How does the ionizing radiation produced by massive stars escape from galaxies, and how does it affect the properties of neighboring galaxies?
4. How are magnetic fields seeded and amplified in galaxies, and how are they ejected into the intergalactic medium?

http://www.pa.msu.edu/~osheabr/