Understanding the growth of galaxies and galaxy clusters is one of the most significant outstanding problems in our knowledge of the universe. On the largest scales, the universe has a filamentary structure, with gas and dark matter interweaving in a series of threads. The gradual flow and build-up of gas along this "cosmic web" ultimately leads to the formation of protogalaxies and protoclusters. Despite this, the precise manner in which galaxies and their clusters eventually form remains poorly understood. A breakthrough step, enabled by this research, is to connect and synthesize our knowledge of the gas in the outskirts of galaxies with that in galaxy clusters.
This program will address a number of critical questions regarding the structure and flow of gas by using a suite of high-resolution cosmological simulations. The PI will principally use the Adaptive Refinement Tree (ART) code, but will also compare the results of these simulations with detailed multi-wavelength observations of clusters and the circumgalactic medium. The work will lead to new insights into the baryon budgets in galaxies and clusters, the impact of galactic feedback on extended halo gas, the environmental dependence of galaxy evolution, and the quenching of star formation in galaxies.
The PI will also develop a hands-on computational astrophysics curriculum to expand minority involvement in computational science, in collaboration with the Science, Technology, and Research Scholars (STARS) program at Yale University. Furthermore, the data products of the simulations will be made available via online publicly-accessible databases.
