Modelling the dynamics of the (quasi) invisible dark matter with N-body simulations has become a routine for numerical cosmologists. The challenge now lies in implementing baryonic physics with a similar degree of reliability.
In this talk, we will present recent efforts in that direction which take advantage of the latest adaptive mesh refinement techniques and state-of-the-art supercomputer power to describe gas dynamics. Combining this approach with classic semi-analytic recipes to account for metal dependent radiative cooling, star formation and feedback, we will focus on the comparison between predicted galaxy luminosity functions obtained at redshifts beyond 3 and observed ones. In particular, we will discuss in detail the degeneracy between dust absorption and cosmological parameters which arises from the joint interpretation of these data.
|
