Enzo-E Units

In non-cosmological simulations, the user is free to specify length, time, and either density or mass units (only one can be set). This is done by setting values for Units:length, Units:time, and either Units:density or Units:mass, which correspond to the unit length / time / density / mass in cgs units. If running with gravity, and if the user wants to use the standard value for the gravitational constant, the user must set a value for Method:gravity:grav_const which is consistent with their choice of units; i.e., its value must be \(G_{cgs}\times M \times T^2 \times L^{-3}\), or equivalently, \(G_{cgs}\times D \times T^2\), where \(M, D, T, L\) are the mass, density, time, and length units, and \(G_{cgs}\) is the value of the gravitational constant in cgs units.

In cosmological simulations, the code ignores any specified units and instead operates in a coordinate system which is comoving with the universal expansion, defining the length, time, velocity, and density units as given below (length and density units depend on time / redshift.)

The length unit is specified by Physics:cosmology:comoving_box_size, which gives the length unit in terms of comoving \(Mpc/h\).

The density unit is defined so that the comoving mean matter density of the universe is 1, where the mean comoving matter density is given by \(\frac{3 H_0^2 \Omega_m}{8 \pi G}\).

The time unit is defined so that \(\frac{3}{2} H_0^2 \Omega_m (1+z_i)^3 = 1\), where \(z_i\) is the initial redshift of the simulation. This is the free-fall time at \(z = z_i\), which has the effect of simplifying Poisson’s equation.

The velocity unit is defined as \(\frac{1+z_i}{1+z} L / T\), where \(L\) is the length unit, and \(T\) is the time unit.

For cosmological simulations, the value set for Method:gravity:grav_const is ignored.

In all simulations, the "temperature" field always has units of Kelvin.