Title: Origins of galaxy structures, insights from numerical simulations

Speaker: Min Du, Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Peking University

Host: Haoran Yu

Time: 14:30-16:30, Thursday, 

Location: Physics Building 552

Abstract: 

A complete galaxy formation theory can almost only be achieved with numerical simulations and, in particularly, with cosmological simulations evolving the dark matter and baryonic components self-consistently from cosmologically-motivated initial conditions. In simulations, we are able to extract intrinsic structures in a physical way, as well as to track their formation processes and evolutionary histories. This will not only take full use of simulations but also gain insights in the formation history of the real galaxies that display a great diversity. I will introduce how numerical simulations work as a lab to test different physics, which significantly improves our understanding of disk, bar, bulge, and halo structures in galaxies.

Bio: 

I obtain my Ph.D degree at the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory in 2017, winning 中科院院长特别奖. Then I starts to work as a postdoc at Peking University, supported by the "博士后创新人才支持计划" and the first class "博士后面上" fellowship. My research interests include numerical simulations, the formation and evolution of galaxies.