How to simulate the Universe in a Computer

Abstract

In this contribution a broad overview of the methodologies of cosmological N-body simulations and a short introduction explaining the general idea behind such simulations is presented. After explaining how to set up the initial conditions using a set of N particles two (diverse) techniques are presented for evolving these particles forward in time under the influence of their self-gravity. One technique (tree codes) is solely based upon a sophistication of the direct particle-particle summation whereas the other method relies on the continuous (de-)construction of arbitrarily shaped grids and is realized in adaptive mesh refinement codes.

8 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in PASA (refereed proceedings contribution for the meeting "Gravity 2004" held in Sydney, April 15-16, 2004)