The Feedback In Realistic Environments (FIRE) project focuses on developing very high-resolution "zoom-in" simulations of small groups of galaxies, resolving their detailed internal properties in a full cosmological context. The FIRE simulations employ the GIZMO code using a Lagrangian finite-volume Godunov hydrodynamics method that combines the advantages of grid-based and particle-based methods. FIRE implements star formation from dense, molecular, self-gravitating gas and local feedback from Supernovae, stellar winds, photoionization and photoelectric heating, and local and long-range radiation pressure, with all feedback quantities and their time dependence tabulated directly from stellar populations synthesis models.  Owing to the combination of high resolution and realistic interstellar medium physics, the FIRE simulations are able to reproduce a wide range of observed galaxy properties without tuning model parameters.

Our group's primary research areas within the FIRE collaboration include the development of more accurate models of supermassive black hole growth and feedback, and the use of particle tracking techniques to investigate galaxy mass assembly, galactic winds, and the circumgalactic medium.

Check out this selection of FIRE papers:

Characterizing mass, momentum, energy and metal outflow rates of multi-phase galactic winds in the FIRE-2 cosmological simulations. Pandya, V., Fielding, D., Anglés-Alcázar, D., et al. 2021, submitted to MNRAS (arXiv:2103.06891).