Galaxy Construction
In the last few weeks I’ve learned more about how the Splotch visualization code works. Next I need to learn to actually use it.
John Wallin from GMU provided me with a copy of his detailed lecture notes for the graduate n-body methods course that he teaches. The notes include SPH, the particle-mesh method, the tree method, time integration schemes, and much more. I was pleased to find out that I had already learned most of the material in his course. I did learn some important things from the notes though. At the moment, my main deficiency is that I haven’t written my own code to implement all of the pieces. John has a parallel tree-SPH code called Mass99.
Except for writing my own code, the best way to learn more about the subject is through explaining it to others. In the Spring quarter, I will likely have the opportunity to present part of the material in abbreviated form. I’m considering one lecture on N-body methods, one lecture on SPH, and one lecture on HPC (primarily parallelization and vectorization).
I’ve read the frequently-cited paper, Modelling feedback from stars and black holes in galaxy mergers. In addition to describing sub-resolution feedback, star formation, and accretion, the paper describes the method used for initializing the stars and gas in relaxed disk galaxies with bulge components and dark matter halos. Evidently many researchers use this method to construct galaxies. It would be nice to attain a code that implements the procedure described in the paper. Writing a code based on the description would be a project in itself and some details of the resulting galaxies may differ between this code and the work of other researchers.
Most of my reading lately has involved gravitation. My second course in general relativity begins next week.
The next step in my research will involve learning to use Splotch. Once I can visualize the output of GADGET, it will be easier to gain more experience using the code. At the moment, I’m essentially blind.