title: Simulations of the formation, evolution and clustering of galaxies and quasars.
abstract: The cold dark matter model has become the leading theoretical picture for the formation of structure in the Universe. This model, together with the theory of cosmic inflation, makes a clear prediction for the initial conditions for structure formation and predicts that structures grow hierarchically through gravitational instability. Testing this model requires that the precise measurements delivered by galaxy surveys can be compared to robust and equally precise theoretical calculations. Here we present a simulation of the growth of dark matter structure using 2,160(3) particles, following them from redshift z = 127 to the present in a cube-shaped region 2.230 billion lightyears on a side. In postprocessing, we also follow the formation and evolution of the galaxies and quasars. We show that baryon-induced features in the initial conditions of the Universe are reflected in distorted form in the low-redshift galaxy distribution, an effect that can be used to constrain the nature of dark energy with future generations of observational surveys of galaxies.
authors.affiliation: Max-Planck-Institute for Astrophysics, Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 1, 85740 Garching, Germany. vspringel@mpa-garching.mpg.de
authors.forename: Volker
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Springel
authors.forename: Simon D M
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: White
authors.forename: Adrian
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jenkins
authors.forename: Carlos S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Frenk
authors.forename: Naoki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Yoshida
authors.forename: Liang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Julio
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Navarro
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Thacker
authors.forename: Darren
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Croton
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Helly
authors.forename: John A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Peacock
authors.forename: Shaun
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cole
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.forename: Hugh
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Couchman
authors.forename: August
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Evrard
authors.forename: Jörg
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Colberg
authors.forename: Frazer
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Pearce