Simulating the Cosmos
Why the Universe Looks the Way It Does
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- $19.99
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
A behind-the-scenes look at the latest tool in astrophysics: computer simulations of the cosmos.
Simulating the Cosmos is a behind-the-scenes look at one of the hottest and fastest-moving areas of astrophysics today: simulations of cosmology and galaxy formation. Leading cosmologist Romeel Davé guides you through the trials and tribulations of what it takes to teach computers how galaxies form, the amazing insights revealed by cosmological simulations, and the many mysteries yet to be solved. This rollicking journey is a rare glimpse into science in action, showing how cosmologists are using supercomputers to uncover the secrets of how the universe came to be.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
University of Edinburgh cosmologist Davé's dense debut comes up short in attempting to detail how astronomers use computer simulations to study the cosmos. Delving into "what it takes to build a universe on a computer," Davé explains that accounting for every star in the observable universe, itself only a fraction of outer space, would exceed the world's cumulative computing power, and that a comprehensive simulation would take "over 100,000 times the age of the Universe" to compute. The solution is to make compromises: astronomers reduce the complexity of simulations (and thus the processing power required to run them) by restricting their focus to discrete portions of space and lumping clusters of stars into a single data point. There are some intriguing tidbits (early simulations in the mid-1980s revealed that cosmic matter is arranged in "filaments, sheets and nodes," not randomly), but jargon-filled discussions of the formulas used to model cosmic bodies are difficult to follow, as when the author outlines a technique for simplifying the calculation of gravity: "The hard bit is computing the Fourier transform, but fortunately computer scientists have invented an algorithm known as a fast Fourier transform (FFT), which scales with the number of grid cells as Nlog2N." Burdened by technical language, this is tough going. Photos.
