Cosmological Radiative Transfer Comparison Project

On of the most important goals in modern astronomy is trying to understand the formation of structures in the universe. How did the initial density fluctuations after the Big Bang develop into stars, galaxies, and groups of galaxies? An important tool in understanding this process is numerical simulations. Numerical cosmologists have succeeded in developing methods which describe the gravitational evolution of dark matter, the process which is thought to ultimately drive structure formation in the universe. These methods have been combined with methods which describe the behaviour of the (baryonic) gas, the material from which the observable stars and galaxies form. This combination allows the construction of realistic and complex models of forming galaxies and galaxy clusters.

The third process needed to properly describe this formation process is radiative feedback. In recent years we have made considerable progress in designing numerical methods to deal with the influence of radiation on structure formation. Radiative transfer is however a complicated process, and we are still only beginning to include it realistically in the simulations of structure formation. This workshop aims at bringing together people working in the field of numerical methods for the transfer of ionizing radiation in a cosmological context.

The program will consist of presentations on recent developments in the field of radiative feedback in cosmology, and of sessions where we will compare the results from different radiative transfer codes for a set test problems, defined at http://www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/tsu3.