Lumina simulation combines galaxy formation and radiation across larger cosmic volume

Researchers at MIT, Harvard and other institutions have presented Lumina, a simulation that tracks galaxy formation and radiation across 2 billion years of early cosmic evolution. MIT says it captures both hydrogen and helium re-ionization, the processes that strip electrons from those elements, in a volume 100 times larger than previous simulations. The team combined a refined galaxy model with calculations of how radiation travels and interacts with matter. Lumina tracks half a trillion elements and ran on the Frontier supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Researchers are making it available to the scientific community for comparisons with telescope observations. Its account of early cosmic evolution depends on initial conditions approximating what physicists theorize existed.