Parallel TreeSPH: A Tool for Galaxy Formation

Abstract

We describe a new implementation of a parallel Tree-SPH code with the aim to simulate Galaxy Formation and Evolution. The code has been parallelized using SHMEM, a Cray proprietary library to handle communications between the 256 processors of the Silicon Graphics T3E massively parallel supercomputer hosted by the Cineca Super-computing Center (Bologna, Italy). The code combines the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) method to solve hydro-dynamical equations with the popular Barnes and Hut (1986) tree-code to perform gravity calculation with a $N \times logN$ scaling, and it is based on the scalar Tree-SPH code developed by Carraro et al (1998)[MNRAS 297, 1021]. Parallelization is achieved distributing particles along processors according to a work-load criterium. Benchmarks, in terms of load-balance and scalability, of the code are analised and critically discussed against the adiabatic collapse of an isothermal gas sphere test using $2 \times 10^{4}$ particles on 8 processors. The code results balanced at more than 95% level. Increasing the number of processors, the load balance sligthly worsens. The deviation from perfect scalability at increasing number of processors is negligible up to 64 processors. Additionally we have incorporated radiative cooling, star formation, feed-back and an algorithm to follow the chemical enrichment of the interstellar medium.