Introducing the Illustris Project: simulating the coevolution of dark and visible matter in the Universe

2014/05/31 by Mark Vogelsberger, Shy Genel, Volker Springel +8 · 2,261 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Baryon #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Dark matter #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Galaxy formation and evolution #Physics #Star formation #Stellar mass #Supermassive black hole #astro-ph.CO

paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/mnras/stu1536

published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 444(2), 1518-1547 (Oxford University Press) · 32 pages, 26 figures. MNRAS accepted. The official Illustris website can be found at http://www.illustris-project.org

openalex publication_date 2014/08/29 · arxiv created 2014/09/20 · arxiv updated 2015/06/19 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

We introduce the Illustris Project, a series of large-scale hydrodynamical simulations of galaxy formation. The highest resolution simulation, Illustris-1, covers a volume of (106.5舁Mpc)3, has a dark mass resolution of 6.26 × 106舁M⊙, and an initial baryonic matter mass resolution of 1.26 × 106舁M⊙. At z = 0 gravitational forces are softened on scales of 710舁pc, and the smallest hydrodynamical gas cells have an extent of 48舁pc. We follow the dynamical evolution of 2 × 18203 resolution elements and in addition passively evolve 18203 Monte Carlo tracer particles reaching a total particle count of more than 18 billion. The galaxy formation model includes: primordial and metal-line cooling with self-shielding corrections, stellar evolution, stellar feedback, gas recycling, chemical enrichment, supermassive black hole growth, and feedback from active galactic nuclei. Here we describe the simulation suite, and contrast basic predictions of our model for the present-day galaxy population with observations of the local universe. At z = 0 our simulation volume contains about 40舁000 well-resolved galaxies covering a diverse range of morphologies and colours including early-type, late-type and irregular galaxies. The simulation reproduces reasonably well the cosmic star formation rate density, the galaxy luminosity function, and baryon conversion efficiency at z = 0. It also qualitatively captures the impact of galaxy environment on the red fractions of galaxies. The internal velocity structure of selected well-resolved disc galaxies obeys the stellar and baryonic Tully–Fisher relation together with flat circular velocity curves. In the well-resolved regime, the simulation reproduces the observed mix of early-type and late-type galaxies. Our model predicts a halo mass dependent impact of baryonic effects on the halo mass function and the masses of haloes caused by feedback from supernova and active galactic nuclei.

Citations

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• Breaking the hierarchy of galaxy formation
• Energy input from quasars regulates the growth and activity of black holes and their host galaxies
• Thermal conduction in cosmological SPH simulations
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• Scaling Relations of Spiral Galaxies
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Related

• The illustris simulation: Public data release
• Simulating galaxy formation with the IllustrisTNG model
• Physical Processes Behind the Co-Evolution of Halos, Galaxies and Supermassive Black Holes in the IllustrisTNG Simulation
• Galaxy Morphology and Star Formation in the Illustris Simulation at z=0
• Introducing the AIDA-TNG project: galaxy formation in alternative dark matter models