Core suite of FIRE-2 simulations to z = 0


All simulations in the Core suite are run to z = 0 (snapshot 600). Most Core simulations have all 601 snapshots available, but most simulations in the Dark Matter Only, MHD+, and Cosmic Ray suites have every tenth snapshot (61 total) available.

Almost all Core simulations contain catalogs of (sub)halos and galaxies at all available snapshots, generated via Rockstar. Most simulations also include full merger trees from Consistent Trees. The directory rockstar_config/ contains the configuration files we used when generating these.

Most Core simulations include particle tracking in the directory track/. This includes, for all gas and star particles at z = 0 (snapshot 600), a pointer index to their location in each previous snapshot. The file track/host_coordinates.hdf5 also stores the 3-D position and 3-D velocity of the primary host galaxy (or 2 galaxies in the case of the ELVIS Local Group-like simulations), as well as the 3-D formation coordinates (with respect to the primary host galaxy) for all star particles at z = 0 (snapshot 600). For most Core simulations, we used this to create the file track/star_exsitu_flag_600.txt, which simply list 1 or 0 to indicate whether or not the star particle formed ex-situ (beyond 30 kpc comoving) with respect to the primary host galaxy.


The simulations immediately in this core/ directory use FIRE-2 "base physics", and in general we recommend these as the default simulations within the Core suite to analyze. We also provide the following suites of physics variations, for a (variable) subset of the Core suite:

dm_only/
* Dark Matter Only resimulations that include only dark matter
* 19 simulations, subset of 61 snapshots
* halo catalogs with merger trees across all ~600 snapshots

reionize_later/
* Later Reionization resimulations that use an updated ultraviolet background, which undergoes cosmic reionization at z = 7.8, instead of at z ~ 10 as in other FIRE-2 simulations
* 4 simulations, all 601 snapshots
* halo/galaxy catalogs with merger trees across all snapshots
* particle tracking across all snapshots

mhd/
* MHD+ resimulations that model magnetohydrodynamics, as well as anisotropic conduction and viscocity in gas
* 16 simulations, subset of 61 snapshots
* m12f, m12i, m12m (only) have more snapshots, halo/galaxy catalogs with merger trees, and particle tracking

cosmic_ray/
* Cosmic Ray resimulations that, in addition to MHD+, also model the injection, transport, and feedback from cosmic rays
* 14 simulations, subset of 61 snapshots
* m12f, m12i, m12m (only) have all 601 snapshots, halo/galaxy catalogs with merger trees, and particle tracking