http://arxiv.org/abs/2106.12662
Full-physics cosmological simulations are powerful tools for studying the formation and evolution of structure in the universe but require extreme computational resources. Here, we train a convolutional neural network to use a cheaper N-body-only simulation to reconstruct the baryon hydrodynamic variables (density, temperature, and velocity) on scales relevant to the Lyman-$\alpha$ (Ly$\alpha$) forest, using data from Nyx simulations. We show that our method enables rapid estimation of these fields at a resolution of $\sim$20kpc, and captures the statistics of the Ly$\alpha$ forest with much greater accuracy than existing approximations. Because our model is fully-convolutional, we can train on smaller simulation boxes and deploy on much larger ones, enabling substantial computational savings. Furthermore, as our method produces an approximation for the hydrodynamic fields instead of Ly$\alpha$ flux directly, it is not limited to a particular choice of ionizing background or mean transmitted flux.
P. Harrington, M. Mustafa, M. Dornfest, et. al.
Fri, 25 Jun 21
31/62
Comments: 10 pages, 6 figures