Visualizing Astrophysical N-body Systems
arXiv:0805.4397 · doi:10.1088/1367-2630/10/12/125002
Abstract
I begin with a brief history of N-body simulation and visualization and then go on to describe various methods for creating images and animations of modern simulations in cosmology and galactic dynamics. These techniques are incorporated into a specialized particle visualization software library called MYRIAD that is designed to render images within large parallel N-body simulations as they run. I present several case studies that explore the application of these methods to animations of star clusters, interacting galaxies and cosmological structure formation.
25 pages, accepted in the New Journal of Physics for upcoming Focus issue on Visualization in Physics. Accompanying animations including a free bittorrent download of the DVD GRAVITAS are available at http://www.galaxydynamics.org/gravitas.html
References in corpus (12)
- The cosmological simulation code GADGET-2
- Simulating the joint evolution of quasars, galaxies and their large-scale distribution
- Energy input from quasars regulates the growth and activity of black holes and their host galaxies
- GADGET: A code for collisionless and gasdynamical cosmological simulations
- Gasoline: An adaptable implementation of TreeSPH
- GRAPE-6: The massively-parallel special-purpose computer for astrophysical particle simulation
- A Parallel Tree Code
- Using Tidal Tails to Probe Dark Matter Halos
- The Collision Between The Milky Way And Andromeda
- GOTPM: A Parallel Hybrid Particle-Mesh Treecode
- A New Parallel P3M Code for Very Large-Scale Cosmological Simulations
- GRAVITAS: Portraits of a Universe in Motion