LACEGAL · Latin Amercian Chinese European Galaxy Formation Network

Latin Amercian Chinese European Galaxy Formation Network

LACEGAL is a IRSES network which brings together leading astronomy research centres in Europe, Latin American and China to provide training and to build new research capacity in the use of computer simulations in astrophysics and cosmology. Our research program covers an enormously wide range of scales, from ultra-high resolution simulations of the formation of individual structures in the dark matter, such as the halo which hosts our galaxy, the Milky Way, to the largest scale structures in the universe, which can be used to probe the nature of dark energy. The program has covered the design of simulation code, the running of state-of-the-art simulations and the analysis of the results of these simulations. Highlights of the LACEGAL research program include: •The first multi-hundred billion particle simulation, the Millennium XXL (MXXL). The MXXL is still unique in terms of the combination of the volume covered and the mass resolution, which make this an invaluable resource for studying large-scale structure in the galaxy distribution. •The first comparison of current best bet model of the formation and evolution of galaxies, to assess how well we can predict the clustering of galaxies. •The generation of mock galaxy catalogues from our large simulations for use in the analysis of ongoing and upcoming galaxy surveys, such as the Dark Energy Survey and the European Space Agency’s Euclid mission. •The implementation of improved treatments of the physics of star formation and the impact of heating by supernovae on the interstellar medium, key processes which shape the formation and evolution of galaxies. •The development of the only code which is currently available to run in parallel to model modified gravity cosmologies. •The impact of the ejection of baryons on their host dark matter haloes due to supernovae. • A novel approach to measuring the large-scale structure of the Universe, using of the angular clustering of bright galaxies called Luminous Red Galaxies, which does not require an assumption to be made about the underlying cosmology. • A model for the radiative transfer of Lyman-alpha photons, to improve our understanding of which galaxies produce these photons. •Modelling the accretion of matter onto supermassive black holes. •Modelling the emission of gravitational waves which could be tested with a future space mission. •Identifying clusters and groups of galaxies from photometric surveys, such as PanSTARRs, DES and PAU, and ultimately the LSST. •VST/ATLAS observations for the service observation of the VST-ATLAS u-band extension survey. LACEGAL has supported 114 exchanges by researchers between Latin America, Europe and China, for a total of 168.5 months. Many of the nodes in the network had not interacted before, so significant new research collaborations have been developed as a result. One example of the success of the network activities is provided by the award of a Newton Fund grant for exchanges between Catolica in Chile and Durham University, which will start later in 2015. LACEGAL also supported a international conference and workshop. To date, 35 refereed publications have resulted from the network exchanges. Project website: http://www.lacegal.com/ Project Scientist: Prof. Carlton Baugh (c.m.baugh@durham.ac.uk)

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