Introducing the Illustris Project: simulating the coevolution of dark and visible matter in the Universe

We introduce the Illustris Project, a series of large-scale hydrodynamical simulations of galaxy formation. The highest resolution simulation, Illustris-1, covers a volume of (106.5\,{\rm Mpc})^3 has a dark mass resolution of {6.26 \times 10^{6}\,{\rm M}_\odot} and an initial baryonic matter mass resolution of {1.26 \times 10^{6}\,{\rm M}_\odot} At z=0gravitational forces are softened on scales of 710\,{\rm pc} and the smallest...