Validating the Universe in a Box

TL;DR

This paper discusses the challenges of validating large-scale universe simulations and proposes a structured code validation approach using eliminative reasoning to improve reliability assessment.

Contribution

It introduces a novel validation methodology based on eliminative reasoning to better identify and reduce sources of error in cosmological simulations.

Findings

Structured validation can improve simulation reliability

Eliminative reasoning helps isolate sources of error

Proposed approach complements existing robustness analyses

Abstract

Computer simulations of the formation and evolution of large scale structure in the universe are integral to the enterprise of modern cosmology. Establishing the reliability of these simulations has been extremely challenging, primarily because of epistemic opacity. In this setting, robustness analysis defined by requiring converging outputs from a diverse ensemble of simulations is insufficient to determine simulation validity. Instead, we propose an alternative path of structured code validation that applies eliminative reasoning to isolate and reduce possible sources of error, a potential path that is already being explored by some cosmologists.