Virgo Millennium Database

When published in 2005, the Millennium Run was the largest ever simulation of the formation of structure within the ΛCDM cosmology. It uses 10(10) particles to follow the dark matter distribution in a cubic region 500h(−1)Mpc on a side, and has a spatial resolution of 5h−1kpc. Application of simplified modelling techniques to the stored output of this calculation allows the formation and evolution of the ~10(7) galaxies more luminous than the Small Magellanic Cloud to be simulated for a variety of assumptions about the detailed physics involved. As part of the activities of the German Astrophysical Virtual Observatory we have created relational databases to store the detailed assembly histories both of all the haloes and subhaloes resolved by the simulation, and of all the galaxies that form within these structures for two independent models of the galaxy formation physics. We have implemented a Structured Query Language (SQL) server on these databases. This allows easy access to many properties of the galaxies and halos, as well as to the spatial and temporal relations between them. Information is output in table format compatible with standard Virtual Observatory tools. With this announcement (from 1/8/2006) we are making these structures fully accessible to all users. Interested scientists can learn SQL and test queries on a small, openly accessible version of the Millennium Run (with volume 1/512 that of the full simulation). They can then request accounts to run similar queries on the databases for the full simulations. In 2008 and 2012 the simulations were repeated.

2005年发布的千年运行（Millennium Run）是迄今为止对ΛCDM宇宙学中结构形成的最大规模模拟。该模拟采用10^10个粒子，在一个边长为500h^(-1)Mpc的立方区域内追踪暗物质分布，空间分辨率为5h^(-1)kpc。通过对该计算存储输出的简化建模技术，我们可以模拟在多种关于涉及物理细节的假设下，形成并演化的超过10^7个比小麦哲伦云更亮的星系的演变过程。作为德国天体物理虚拟天文台的系列活动之一，我们创建了关系数据库，以存储由模拟解析出的所有暗物质晕和次晕以及形成在这些结构中的所有星系的详细组装历史，涉及两种独立的星系形成物理模型。在这些数据库上，我们实现了结构化查询语言（SQL）服务器。这允许用户轻松访问许多星系和晕的性质，以及它们之间的空间和时间关系。信息以与标准虚拟天文工具兼容的表格格式输出。随着本公告（发布于2006年1月8日）的发布，我们使这些结构对所有用户全面开放。感兴趣的科学家可以学习SQL并在一个体积为完整模拟1/512的小型公开可访问版本（千年运行）上测试查询。然后，他们可以申请账户，在完整模拟的数据库上运行类似的查询。2008年和2012年，这些模拟被重复进行。