I am currently studying clusters of galaxies with numerical simulations. There are a variety of interesting problems one can explore using clusters. In my case, I have a particular focus on understanding observations of the intracluster medium (ICM), a diffuse, hot, X-ray emitting component of clusters which contains the bulk of the baryonic material. From the simulation side, these objects are modeled using sophisticated N-body/hydro simulation codes. My focus has been on direct comparison of the simulations to observations. Additionally, I have continued to work on X-ray observations of clusters of galaxies from the Chandra and ROSAT X-ray telescopes, and have begun to work directly with observers and instrumentalists on Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect (SZE) observations of the cluster ICM. In particular, a recent thrust of my research has been constructing very large simulated sky surveys in X-rays and through the SZE. In this way, we can identify the systematic effects in peforming precision cosmological analyses using large area galaxy cluster surveys.
The driving idea behind the education and outreach plan is two-fold. First, it is well known that the combination of the human eye and brain is a superior set of tools for visual correlation. Second, people have a general intuition for fluid dynamics from their abundant experiences with air and water. Combining these two natural human abilities in order to gain physical intuition about cosmology and astrophysics is the underlying goal of this project. At its simplest level, animations of complex numerical simulations of astrophysical objects can be used to enhance the student’s understanding of physics. This concept is not new, indeed it underlies the use of laboratory demonstrations and animations of all sorts of physical phenomena. The unique features here are that I will use numerical simulations performed by myself and others to illustrate specific, typically poorly understood, astrophysical concepts for use with students of skill levels ranging from introductory to advanced, spanning a continuum of very qualitative to very quantitative approaches to the data.