My main interest is the formation and evolution of galaxies in a cosmological context. Galaxy formation is a vast subject, covering many different physical processes, from the origin of structure in the Universe to the formation and evolution of stars in galaxies. In my research, I make use of cosmological simulations and phenomenological models to study the formation and evolution of galaxies and the properties of large-scale structure in the Universe. The pages linked below give a basic introduction to my work. For a more detailed, technical description, check out my publications.
MareNostrum simulation
The MareNostrum simulation is the largest cosmological N-body/hydrodynamic simulation performed to date. It uses adaptive mesh refinement to achieve a resolution of 1-2 kpc, about the size of a small galaxy. This is important because so-called ‘dwarf’ galaxies are by far the most commonly occuring in the Universe, especially at early times, and they may play an important role in the evolution of the intergalactic medium.
Phenomenological models of galaxy formation
Galaxy formation involves a diverse range of physical processes. Phenomenological (or semi-analytic) models attempt to bring together all of these processes in a single, coherent model with the power to make predictions for statistical samples of galaxies. In our model, the sites of galaxy formation are identified in an N-body simulation and simple, phenomenological rules for gas dynamics, star formation, etc. are used to predict the properties of the galaxies that form.
Large-scale structure
Understanding how large-scale structure in the Universe formed is an important goal of cosmology. We are using N-body simulations to investigate the flow of information in the non-linear power spectrum. Our aim is to find out if information (about the initial spectrum of fluctuations) is preserved through non-linear evolution. If it is then this means that - at least in theory - we should be able to reconstruct the spectrum of primordial fluctuations from the present-day galaxy distribution.