
What caused the rapid growth of early supermassive black holes? - pitdesi
http://www.cmu.edu/homepage/computing/2011/fall/shedding-light.shtml
======
tectonic
The simulation they ran sounds really impressive:

To find out exactly how these supermassive black holes came to be, Di Matteo,
Croft and Carnegie Mellon post-doctoral researcher Nishikanta Khandai created
the largest cosmological simulation to date. Called MassiveBlack, the
simulation focused on recreating the first billion years after the Big Bang.

"This simulation is truly gigantic. It's the largest in terms of the level of
physics and the actual volume. We did that because we were interested in
looking at rare things in the universe, like the first black holes. Because
they are so rare, you need to search over a large volume of space," Di Matteo
said.

They began by running the simulation under conditions set under the standard
model of cosmology — the accepted theories and laws of modern day physics
governing the formation and growth of the universe.

"We didn't put anything crazy in. There's no magic physics, no extra stuff.
It's the same physics that forms galaxies in simulations of the later
universe," Croft said.

"But magically, these early quasars, just as had been observed, appear. We
didn't know they were going to show up. It was amazing to measure their masses
and go 'Wow! These are the exact right size and show up exactly at the right
point in time.' It's a success story for the modern theory of cosmology."

~~~
tectonic
Also, this gigapan image of the simulation is cool:
<http://gigapan.org/gigapans/76215/>

------
seiji
_This enabled them to easily pan across the simulated universe as it formed
and move back and forth through time as necessary. They could then zoom in on
events that looked interesting, viewing them in greater detail than could be
seen using a telescope._

Your task for the day: prove we aren't living in somebody's simulated
universe.

