Cluster Simulations on the PSC Cray T3E

A process somewhat analogous to that of the alleged formations of the universe, time and times ago, was observable. The bustling swarm had swept the sky in a scattered and uniform haze, which now thickened to a nebulous centre: this glided on to a bough and grew still denser, till it formed a solid black spot upon the light.
- Thomas Hardy, Far From the Madding Crowd

A simulation of a cluster of galaxies using the parallel treecode on the Cray T3E at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center. The core of the cluster is shown here 7.5 billion years after the Big Bang. The cluster center is dominated by a massive, bright elliptical galaxy which forms early on through the runaway merger of several galaxies and closely resembles the bright central galaxies seen in real galaxy clusters. Many of the disks show signs of disturbance brought on through interactions with other galaxies and the bright central galaxy.

[Jump to webprint] [The Origin of Brightest Cluster Galaxies - Dubinski, J. 1998, ApJ, 502, 141]

Movies

The first 3 movies cover the evolution of the cluster over 10 billion years and the last 2 are rotations of the cluster at z=0.35 and z=0. The long side of the box is 1.5 Mpc in length. If you're using xanim, I find that "xanim -Cn +CF4" gives the best results.

320x240 - xy projection

320x240 - xz projection

320x240 - yz projection

320x240 - z=0.35 rotation

320x240 - z=0.0 rotation

John Dubinski
CITA
University of Toronto
60 St. George St.
Toronto, Ontario
CANADA M5S 3H8
dubinski@cita.utoronto.ca