Evolution of large-scale structure in the CDM universe
with dark energy
see also this web page
The movie illustrates the formation formation of clusters and
large-scale filaments in the Cold Dark Matter model with dark
energy. The frames show the evolution of structures in a 43 million
parsecs (or 140 million light years) box from redshift of 30 to the
present epoch (upper left z=30 to lower right z=0). At the initial
epoch (z=30), when the age of the Universe was less than 1% of its
current age, distribution of matter appears to be uniform. This is
because the seed fluctuations are still fairly small. As time goes on,
the fluctuations grow resulting in a wealth of structures from the
smallest bright clumps which have sizes and masses similar to those of
galaxies to the large filaments. Notice the filament spanning the
entire box from left to right and how it becomes more and more
pronounced with time. Also, note that it does not change much between
z=0.5 and z=0. This is because the expansion of the universe is in the
stage of acceleration as the "dark energy" becomes dominant at z<1. On
large scales seen here, gravity cannot compete with the dark
energy-driven acceleration and the growth of structures ceases. As the
contraction of large-scale structures is halted they expand with the
universe and appear "frozen" in our co-moving system of coordinates.
Questions and comments: Andrey Kravtsov (andrey@oddjob.uchicago.edu)
You can use this material if you include the proper credit:
simulations were performed at the National
Center for Supercomputer Applications
by
Andrey Kravtsov
(Center for Cosmological Physics (CfCP), The University of Chicago)
and Anatoly Klypin
(New Mexico State University).
Visualizations
by Andrey Kravtsov.