LMU - Universitäts-Sternwarte München (USM) has a long record for advancing codes for cosmological simulations, constructing and implementing physical processes into such codes. The group realized a suite of large scale cosmological boxes (among them the world largest, cosmological, hydro-dynamical simulation), which are very well suited for a detailed study of the population of galaxies, small groups of galaxies, and especially galaxy clusters. The group also operates the cosmological web portal where data and mock observations for the simulations can be on the fly generated by the scientific community.
The offered access will allow the scientists to fully exploit the online tools provided by USM. Visitors will be trained how to obtain and process also the raw simulation data which allows them to relate observational features or biases to dynamical or geometrical properties of the underlying objects (like galaxy clusters). They will also be trained how to produce idealized observations of various physical properties which would be accessible across other wavelengths. Overall, this will allow them to better relate their findings to the underlying, physical processes acting to form and evolve the visible, cosmological structures. Examples for such studies from the past ranges from studying how the additional X-ray emission of AGNs influences the expected galaxy cluster count rates in future X-ray surveys with the eROSITA instrument or how the different cosmological objects (like galaxies, clusters and AGNs) can be used to identify voids in future galaxy surveys like the EUCLID mission.