Dr. Paul Torrey (University of Florida)

Friday, October 14^th, 2022

1 – 2 PM
Venue: PG6 112
 

Abstract: Cosmological simulations are among the most powerful tools available to probe the non-linear regime of cosmic structure formation.  They also provide a clear test-bed for understanding the impact that hydrodynamics, feedback processes, and assumptions about Dark Matter properties have on the evolution of galaxies.  I will present an overview of modern galaxy formation simulations that couple a novel moving mesh computational method with explicit baryon feedback prescriptions. This approach results in detailed galaxy formation models that reproduce fundamental observations such as the galaxy stellar mass function, cosmic star formation rate density, and galaxy morphological diversity.  I will briefly discuss the key physical model ingredients and explore in detail the cosmic coevolution of galaxies and their metals including specifically the mass-metallicity relation, fundamental metallicity relation, and metallicity gradient evolution.  I will argue that metallicity observations may allow us to discriminate between bursty and non-bursty feedback models.  In turn, I will explore how the allowability of bursty vs. non-bursty feedback models has implications for constraining Dark Matter models.

Short Bio: Paul Torrey is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Astronomy at University of Florida.  His research group is focused on understanding how galaxies form and evolve using very large scale simulations. These simulations include gravity, hydrodynamics, and a comprehensive suite of galaxy formation physics models to both create realistic galaxy populations, and to further understand how and why such galaxy populations formed. Torrey and his group have played a central role in the development of the Illustris and IllustrisTNG simulations, and they continue to develop new and novel methods for modeling galaxy formation.

Torrey received his BS in Applied Physics from Cornell and PhD from Harvard in Astronomy and Astrophysics.  Prior to joining the UF faculty, Torrey was a joint postdoctoral researcher at MIT and Caltech, and was a Hubble Fellow at MIT.