The history of star formation in a   cold dark matter universe

Employing hydrodynamic simulations of structure formation in a cold dark matter cosmology, we study the history of cosmic star formation from the 'dark ages' at redshift z 20 to the present. In addition to gravity and ordinary hydrodynamics, our model includes radiative heating and cooling of gas, star formation, supernova feedback and galactic winds. By making use of a comprehensive set of simulations on interlocking scales and epochs, we demonstrate numerical convergence of our results on all relevant halo mass scales, ranging from 10 8 to 10 15 h -1 M .