Event — General relativity in cosmological simulations – CASUS – Center for Advanced Systems Understanding

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CASUS Distinguished Lecture

General relativity in cosmological simulations

CASUS Distinguished Lecture, Prof. Julian Adamek, SNF-Eccellenza-Professor, Department of Astrophysics, University of Zurich, Switzerland

Abstract of the talk// Cosmological surveys are probing extremely large volumes at ever increasing precision. The dramatic improvement in statistical errors allows us to detect even very subtle effects in the large-scale distribution of matter, and to thoroughly test our theory of gravity on cosmological distance scales. Julian will present a numerical framework for cosmological N-body simulations that offers a consistent treatment of the dynamics of spacetime as described by the full set of Einstein’s equations. Such a framework can be used to compute higher-order correlations in a relativistic setting, or to predict the gravitational dynamics of exotic models that do not offer a simple Newtonian description.

Curriculum vitae// Professor Julian Adamek is a German physicist. He holds an Eccellenza Professorial Fellowship from the Swiss National Science Foundation and works at the University of Zurich. He earned his PhD in physics from Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg in 2011. Before that, he completed a diploma in physics and a pre-diploma in computer science at the same university. His scientific career includes postdoctoral research positions at the University of Geneva, the Observatoire de Paris, and Queen Mary University of London.

Julian is interested in a precise understanding of the weak-field regime of General Relativity that allows modeling spacetime geometry pervaded by small distortions consistently within N-body simulations of cosmic structure formation. The subtle relativistic effects in cosmic structure can tell us how gravity operates on the largest scales that humans can observe. They also may hold the key to unraveling the mystery of dark energy. Julian is the lead developer of “gevolution” – a general-relativistic N-body code for cosmological simulations that was designed to study those relativistic aspects.

Julian Adamek will be talking live in Görlitz. However, as the event is organized in a hybrid format that includes a videoconferencing tool by Zoom Inc., people not present in Görlitz and interested in the topic have the chance to also join the talk. Please ask for the login details via contact@casus.science.