2HOT: An improved parallel hashed oct-tree N-Body algorithm for cosmological simulation

We report on improvements made over the past two decades to our adaptive treecode N-body method (HOT). A mathematical and computational approach to the cosmological N-body problem is described, with performance and scalability measured up to 256k (2¹⁸) processors. We present error analysis and scientific application results from a series of more than ten 69 billion (4096³) particle cosmological simulations, accounting for 4 × 10²⁰ floating point operations. These results include the first simulations using the new constraints on the standard model of cosmology from the Planck satellite. Our simulations set a new standard for accuracy and scientific throughput, while meeting or exceeding the computational efficiency of the latest generation of hybrid TreePM N-body methods.