Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast
Results 1 to 30 of 75

Thread: Which one of these 2 mainstream models gets it right ?

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Posts
    1,138

    Which one of these 2 mainstream models gets it right ?

    About the formation of Filamentary and Large Scale Structures of the Universe ?

    That one based on magnetic field and gravity ?
    http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/np...13B&db_key=AST

    Or that gravitational (only) drived model based on dark matter ?

    http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0504097

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Location
    Massachusetts, USA
    Posts
    19,008
    This isn't really a Q&A topic. If you already have a formed opinion, you should be taking this someplace else, such as Astronomy if you want a mainstream discussion, or ATM if you have something you want to try out.

    Personally I don't like your rhetorical style that implies that exactly one of these is exactly right. Odds are there's some truth in both papers, and neither is perfectly right.
    Forming opinions as we speak

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Posts
    1,138
    Quote Originally Posted by antoniseb View Post
    This isn't really a Q&A topic. If you already have a formed opinion, you should be taking this someplace else, such as Astronomy if you want a mainstream discussion,
    Ok for a transfer to Astronomy.


    Quote Originally Posted by antoniseb View Post
    Personally I don't like your rhetorical style that implies that exactly one of these is exactly right. Odds are there's some truth in both papers, and neither is perfectly right.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Location
    Massachusetts, USA
    Posts
    19,008
    I have moved it, and left a redirect that will expire in 24 hours.
    Forming opinions as we speak

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Posts
    6,773
    IMHO it's not and either/or question, it is just two different approaches, both of which will probably not get the completely correct large scale structures. Most likely both processes will work at the same time and a joint model will have to be created. It's sort of like the solar wind, it is not that we do not know how that is generated, it is that there are too many processes that can generate it and they have to be combined.
    All comments made in red are moderator comments. Please, read the rules of the forum here and read the additional rules for ATM, and for conspiracy theories. If you think a post is inappropriate, don't comment on it in thread but report it using the /!\ button in the lower left corner of each message. But most of all, have fun!

    Bi-weekly space physics research "blog" at tusenfem.blogspot.co.at

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Posts
    1,138
    Quote Originally Posted by tusenfem View Post
    IMHO it's not and either/or question, it is just two different approaches, both of which will probably not get the completely correct large scale structures. Most likely both processes will work at the same time and a joint model will have to be created. It's sort of like the solar wind, it is not that we do not know how that is generated, it is that there are too many processes that can generate it and they have to be combined.
    Battaner in part 4 claim that CDM based model(s) in (1982) ,(1997) predicted a random distribution of Galaxies on very large scale. This is contradicted by observations which show rather a considerable regularity (Battaner's citation)...
    See introduction chapter for details
    Part 4
    http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1998A%26A...338..383B

  7. #7
    I wouldn't call Battaner's work mainstream at all. Certainly, it is not ever discussed in modern studies of the matter evolution of the Universe.

    Springel et al.'s work on the Millennium Simulation is very close to the observed properties of the matter distribution. The differences can be mostly ascribed to their choices of initial parameters being slightly different.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Posts
    1,138
    Quote Originally Posted by parejkoj View Post
    I wouldn't call Battaner's work mainstream at all. Certainly, it is not ever discussed in modern studies of the matter evolution of the Universe.
    It seem that Battaner model (1997-98)is in reply to the failure of earlier CDM model(s) predictions made in (1982)and (1997) to match observation.
    http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/np...13B&db_key=AST

    see reference in post 6.

    Quote Originally Posted by parejkoj View Post
    Springel et al.'s work on the Millennium Simulation is very close to the observed properties of the matter distribution. The differences can be mostly ascribed to their choices of initial parameters being slightly different.
    Yep ! But there is a trick...

    If you look at Page 19 you will see that the parameters they used for making their model were specifically selected to match surveys results ..."our parameter adopted values are consistent with a combined analysis of the 2dFGRS surveys and first WMAP data".(Citation)

    http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0504097

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    Wellington, New Zealand
    Posts
    386
    The trick is that they selected the "cosmological parameters of our LCDM-simulation" that were "consistent with a combined analysis of the 2dFGRS surveys and first WMAP data". They want to match the results of their simulation with the actual observations (e.g. the 2dFGRS surveys) so this selection is not surprising.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Posts
    1,138
    Quote Originally Posted by Reality Check View Post
    The trick is that they selected the "cosmological parameters of our LCDM-simulation" that were "consistent with a combined analysis of the 2dFGRS surveys and first WMAP data". They want to match the results of their simulation with the actual observations (e.g. the 2dFGRS surveys) so this selection is not surprising.
    No ,that is not surprising at all. However how they can pretend that they are making predictions?.Are they talking about the evolution of the large scale structures in n billions years?

    Because as pointed out in post 6

    CDM based model(s) made in (1982) ,(1997) predicted a random distribution of Galaxies on very large scale. This (was) contradicted by observations which show rather a considerable regularity

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Location
    United Kingdom
    Posts
    3,058
    If you look at Page 19 you will see that the parameters they used for making their model were specifically selected to match surveys results ..."our parameter adopted values are consistent with a combined analysis of the 2dFGRS surveys and first WMAP data".(Citation)
    You mean... They are using evidence to refine their model?! What a disgrace!

    Generally with these sorts of models you can count it as a success if you get more out than you put it. If you can explain a lot of things you see with a small number of tuned parameters in a model then it is a useful one. Just look at the Standard Model.

    BTW - saying that a 30 year old model made in the early history of LCDM modelling got the answers wrong is not a good argument against modern models.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Posts
    1,138
    Quote Originally Posted by Shaula View Post
    You mean... They are using evidence to refine their model?! What a disgrace!

    Generally with these sorts of models you can count it as a success if you get more out than you put it. If you can explain a lot of things you see with a small number of tuned parameters in a model then it is a useful one. Just look at the Standard Model.
    But the point is that they claim that they are making predictions with their model, they don't.

    Quote Originally Posted by Shaula View Post
    If you can explain a lot of things you see with a small number of tuned parameters in a model then it is a useful one.
    Can you point about these new -'lot of things'- that this model can explain which was not already know at the moment of the simulation ?

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Location
    United Kingdom
    Posts
    3,058
    My point about the lot of things was that predictions are hard in astrophysical terms. We have made a lot of observations and we do not have the luxury of being able to wait a billion years and see if we are right. A predictive success for models like this can include it explaining something you did not give it as a starting condition. So (as a random example) if you just gave it a few parameters relating to density and temperature, tuned it to match the CMBR and it produced galaxies then that would be a predictive success. The model did not know about galaxies but it produced them.

    Sometimes you get lucky and a model predicts something you have not looked for - but in general the data has already been collected, now we need models to tie it together.

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Posts
    1,138
    Quote Originally Posted by Shaula View Post
    My point about the lot of things was that predictions are hard in astrophysical terms. We have made a lot of observations and we do not have the luxury of being able to wait a billion years and see if we are right.
    You are in agreement that their so called "prediction" in the introduction chapter relate in fact to the description of the initial conditions in the early Universe which finally leaded to the formation of large scale structures...

    Quote Originally Posted by Shaula View Post
    A predictive success for models like this can include it explaining something you did not give it as a starting condition. So (as a random example) if you just gave it a few parameters relating to density and temperature, tuned it to match the CMBR and it produced galaxies then that would be a predictive success. The model did not know about galaxies but it produced them.
    Wrong the model was adjusted all along to match galaxies specific characteristics.
    see page 7
    ..."the modelling assumption and parameters are adjusted by trials and errors in order to fit the observed properties of low redshifts galaxies"

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Posts
    6,773
    Quote Originally Posted by Don J View Post
    Wrong the model was adjusted all along to match galaxies specific characteristics.
    see page 7
    ..."the modelling assumption and parameters are adjusted by trials and errors in order to fit the observed properties of low redshifts galaxies"
    Ehhh, DUH! That is how scientific research works. You make assumptions about the "initial parameters" of the universe, then see whether the result is in agreement with what we see, if not, then adjust the parameters, as those are basically the unknowns of the universe.

    What is it that you expect? Just throw in random stuff and if that does not work, throw away your computer model?

    Naturally you want the magnetic model to be the "correct" one, taking your background into cosideration, but like I said before this is not an either/or question, because nature does not make it that simple. You may want to throw in an incorrect paper from 1982, but that argument is laughable, because as said before, that is at the beginnig stage of this kind of science, and that paper can hardly be used as an argument.
    All comments made in red are moderator comments. Please, read the rules of the forum here and read the additional rules for ATM, and for conspiracy theories. If you think a post is inappropriate, don't comment on it in thread but report it using the /!\ button in the lower left corner of each message. But most of all, have fun!

    Bi-weekly space physics research "blog" at tusenfem.blogspot.co.at

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Location
    United Kingdom
    Posts
    3,058
    Quote Originally Posted by Don J View Post
    Wrong the model was adjusted all along to match galaxies specific characteristics.
    see page 7
    ..."the modelling assumption and parameters are adjusted by trials and errors in order to fit the observed properties of low redshifts galaxies"
    Please read my posts more carefully. The bit you bolded is being interpreted out of context.
    So (as a random example) if you just gave it a few parameters relating to density and temperature, tuned it to match the CMBR and it produced galaxies then that would be a predictive success. The model did not know about galaxies but it produced them.
    That is what I said. It was being used as an example, not as a specific. It was showing what predictive power could mean in astrophysical models. It was not a commentary on the model or paper presented.

  17. #17
    There was no Lambda-CDM model in the 80s: the dark matter models of the time were a variety of warm, hot, and cold dark matter, with several possibilities for the values of omega_M and omega_b. It turns out that if you don't have the correct values of the initial density parameters, you don't get the matter evolution of the Universe correct. Who knew?

  18. #18
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Posts
    1,138
    Quote Originally Posted by Shaula View Post
    Please read my posts more carefully. The bit you bolded is being interpreted out of context.

    That is what I said. It was being used as an example, not as a specific. It was showing what predictive power could mean in astrophysical models. It was not a commentary on the model or paper presented.
    Right i have understand what you proposed however your specific claim sounds like you are saying that they have only put few basic parameters and let run the model from that point which is totally wrong. see post 19

    This is your specicfic claim
    So (as a random example) if you just gave it a few parameters relating to density and temperature, tuned it to match the CMBR and it produced galaxies then that would be a predictive success. The model did not know about galaxies but it produced them.

    ETA
    Quote Originally Posted by Shaula View Post
    It was showing what predictive power could mean in astrophysical models.
    Can you point out to the predictive power (a prediction) this model as made about something who was not already known at the time of the simulation?
    Last edited by Don J; 2012-May-10 at 07:06 PM. Reason: fix a quote

  19. #19
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Posts
    1,138
    Quote Originally Posted by tusenfem View Post
    Ehhh, DUH! That is how scientific research works. You make assumptions about the "initial parameters" of the universe, then see whether the result is in agreement with what we see, if not, then adjust the parameters, as those are basically the unknowns of the universe.

    What is it that you expect? Just throw in random stuff and if that does not work, throw away your computer model?

    Naturally you want the magnetic model to be the "correct" one, taking your background into cosideration, but like I said before this is not an either/or question, because nature does not make it that simple. You may want to throw in an incorrect paper from 1982, but that argument is laughable, because as said before, that is at the beginnig stage of this kind of science, and that paper can hardly be used as an argument.
    The CDM model made in 1997 was not better.

    The present CDM model looks more like a staged movie.See page 7 about the specific algorithms used for galaxies formation for example.

    http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0504097
    Last edited by Don J; 2012-May-10 at 07:06 PM. Reason: Typos

  20. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by Don J View Post
    Right i have understand what you proposed however your specific claim sounds like you are saying that they have only put few basic parameters and let run the model from that point which is totally wrong.
    Actually, that's exactly what they did. Why do you think it isn't? If there is a part of the paper you are confused about, perhaps you could quote it and we could discuss it.

    Their semi-analytical model for galaxy formation is a model for how galaxies occupy dark matter halos, and was not tuned to match observations. They did not follow the formation of individual stars, gas and dust into galaxies (that's impossible given current computing capabilities), but rather parametrized our understanding of that process with a simpler procedure (the "semi-analytic model"), and applied that procedure to the dark matter distribution.

  21. #21
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Location
    United Kingdom
    Posts
    3,058
    Can you point out to the predictive power (a prediction) this model as made about something who was not already known at the time of the simulation?
    Already covered this. Not going to keep repeating myself.

  22. #22
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Posts
    1,138
    Quote Originally Posted by Shaula View Post
    Already covered this. Not going to keep repeating myself.
    Your answer in
    Post 13... I presume ....

  23. #23
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Posts
    1,138
    Quote Originally Posted by parejkoj View Post
    Actually, that's exactly what they did. Why do you think it isn't? If there is a part of the paper you are confused about, perhaps you could quote it and we could discuss it.

    Their semi-analytical model for galaxy formation is a model for how galaxies occupy dark matter halos, and was not tuned to match observations. They did not follow the formation of individual stars, gas and dust into galaxies (that's impossible given current computing capabilities), but rather parametrized our understanding of that process with a simpler procedure (the "semi-analytic model"), and applied that procedure to the dark matter distribution.
    I was replying to the specific claim made by Shaula in post 13...

    _if you just gave it a few parameters relating to density and temperature, tuned it to match the CMBR and it produced galaxies then that would be a predictive success. The model did not know about galaxies but it produced them.
    You are confirming that Shaula is wrong when he claim that The model did not know about galaxies but it produced them.

  24. #24
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Location
    United Kingdom
    Posts
    3,058
    You are confirming that Shaula is wrong when he claim that The model did not know about galaxies but it produced them.
    And I have already covered that. It was not a specific claim it was a demonstrative example of, hypothetically, how a model could be shown to have predictive power if it was shown to match observations not used to 'train' it.

    Is it really that hard to understand? You were questioning how an astrophysical model could be predictive, I was explaining. I was not referring to any particular model.

  25. #25
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Posts
    1,138
    Quote Originally Posted by Shaula View Post
    And I have already covered that. It was not a specific claim it was a demonstrative example of, hypothetically, how a model could be shown to have predictive power if it was shown to match observations not used to 'train' it.

    Is it really that hard to understand? You were questioning how an astrophysical model could be predictive, I was explaining. I was not referring to any particular model.
    Thanks, for the clarification...!No, that is not really hard to understand that this model as no predictive power because that contrary to your demonstrative example the present model was trained to match observations. see post 19

    http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0504097

  26. #26
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    Wellington, New Zealand
    Posts
    386
    Quote Originally Posted by Don J View Post
    No ,that is not surprising at all. However how they can pretend that they are making predictions?.Are they talking about the evolution of the large scale structures in n billions years?
    Yes they they are making predictions!.
    The evolution of the large scale structures in billions of years is an output of the model. It is not part of the input. It is a prediction of the model.

    Quote Originally Posted by Don J View Post
    CDM based model(s) made in (1982) ,(1997)...
    Which has nothing to do with Springel et al.'s work on the Millennium Simulation which was done in 2005.

  27. #27
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    Wellington, New Zealand
    Posts
    386
    Quote Originally Posted by Don J View Post
    You are confirming that Shaula is wrong when he claim that The model did not know about galaxies but it produced them.
    He is confirming what anyone who knows about the simulation knows: That the model did not know about galaxies but it produced them. and
    To track the formation of galaxies and quasars in the simulation, we implement a semianalytic model to follow gas, star and supermassive black hole processes within the merger history trees of dark matter halos and their substructures (see Supplementary Information). The trees contain a total of about 800 million nodes, each corresponding to a dark matter subhalo and its associated galaxies. This methodology allows us to test, during postprocessing, many different phenomenological treatments of gas cooling, star formation, AGN growth,
    feedback, chemical enrichment, etc.
    My emphasis added.
    Each node in the simulation contained multiple galaxies. So they used other models to simulat the galaxies for the simple reason that the nodes did not go down to the atoms in the universe!

  28. #28
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Posts
    1,138
    Quote Originally Posted by Reality Check View Post
    Yes they they are making predictions!.
    The evolution of the large scale structures in billions of years is an output of the model. It is not part of the input. It is a prediction of the model.
    Right ,but as I pointed in the OP there is another mainstream model based on magnetic field which predict the same thing.
    here
    http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/np...13B&db_key=AST

    Quote Originally Posted by Reality Check View Post
    He is confirming what anyone who knows about the simulation knows: That the model did not know about galaxies but it produced them.
    Wrong, their CDM model known about Galaxies formation
    As i pointed out numerous time...
    See page 7of the paper about the specific -semi-analytic model- used by the model to account for galaxies formation and the adjustments by trial and error they were forced to made in their CDM model to match observations.
    http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0504097

  29. #29
    So, I feel like I need to clear up some confusion on the part of several people here about what Springel et al. (and most modern cosmological simulations) did.

    A semi-analytic model does not "produce galaxies" in the sense of generating them ab initio from the gravitational collapse of gas, but rather assigns galaxies to dark matter halos following some prescription. The overall matter distribution is set by the cosmological parameters and however they generate the initial Gaussian random field. The small to medium scale galaxy clustering (correlation function or power spectrum) at a given redshift is thus determined by both how they assign galaxies to halos and the clustering of the dark matter particles (and thus halos) at that redshift. Because of the nature of the gravitational collapse of structure, the clustering of matter on large scales (~>70Mpc) is also determined by both, because of effects like the Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) which shows up at scales around 150Mpc.

    So, a simulation like the Millennium run makes direct predictions about both the small scale and large scale clustering of galaxies of various types (whatever types the semi-analytic model produces) throughout the range of redshift that the simulation covers. Those predictions can be verified or rejected by observations of those types of galaxies at the appropriate redshift. By providing initial cosmological parameters that match the results of, e.g., the WMAP data, we can test whether our understanding of cosmology from WMAP matches with what we can observe from the large scale distribution of galaxies (it does). And by the same token, by running a suite of simulations with different cosmological parameters, we can see what other choices of cosmological parameters also produce a similar large scale galaxy distribution (very few).

  30. #30
    Quote Originally Posted by Don J View Post
    Right ,but as I pointed in the OP there is another mainstream model based on magnetic field which predict the same thing.
    here
    http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/np...13B&db_key=AST
    That is not a mainstream model, and that paper does not provide any comparison with observations. In addition, the understanding of the large scale structure of galaxies was quite limited during the 90s, so any such comparison (though again, that paper provides none) would have to be revisited with more recent data from e.g. SDSS or 2dF.

Similar Threads

  1. Models?
    By Nitreau in forum Space/Astronomy Questions and Answers
    Replies: 2
    Last Post: 2011-Jul-26, 05:06 PM
  2. Keeping Mainstream in Mainstream !
    By galacsi in forum Forum Introductions and Feedback
    Replies: 13
    Last Post: 2007-Sep-06, 03:48 PM
  3. Mainstream Gripes re: Mainstream
    By Peter Wilson in forum Astronomy
    Replies: 82
    Last Post: 2007-Jul-05, 05:00 PM
  4. Standard Solar Models
    By Tim Thompson in forum Against the Mainstream
    Replies: 95
    Last Post: 2005-Dec-10, 01:16 AM
  5. Bad Lunar Models
    By The Bad Astronomer in forum Conspiracy Theories
    Replies: 24
    Last Post: 2003-Dec-04, 05:21 PM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •