Physics and Astronomy Publications
Validating the universe in a box
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-1-2020
Journal
Philosophy of Science
Volume
87
Issue
5
First Page
1221
Last Page
1233
URL with Digital Object Identifier
10.1086/710627
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. 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.
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