Invited paper at Royal Society Discussion Meeting on "New Science from High Performance Computing."
astro-ph/0208219

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Abstract. A timely combination of new theoretical ideas and observational discoveries has brought about significant advances in our understanding of cosmic evolution. Computer simulations have played a key role in these developments by providing the means to interpret astronomical data in the context of physical and cosmological theory. In the current paradigm, our Universe has a flat geometry, is undergoing accelerated expansion and is gravitationaly dominated by elementary particles that make up cold dark matter. Within this framework, it is possible to simulate in a computer the emergence of galaxies and other structures from small quantum fluctuations imprinted during an epoch of inflationary expansion shortly after the Big Bang. The simulations must take into account the evolution of the dark matter as well as the gaseous processes involved in the formation of stars and other visible components. Although many unresolved questions remain, a coherent picture for the formation of cosmic structure in now beginning to emerge.

Table of Contents

• INTRODUCTION
• BUILDING A MODEL
• The content of the Universe
• The initial conditions
• Growth mechanism
• Cosmological parameters
• COSMOLOGICAL SIMULATIONS
• Large-scale structure
• Galaxy formation
• CONCLUSIONS
• REFERENCES