The multiverse and the nature of dark energy
In my recent papers (lead by Jaime Salcido and Luke Barnes), we used the simulation code to explore the multiverse! Specifically, we examined how the abundance of dark energy (or more technically, the zero point energy of empty space) affected the ability of a universe to form stars and galaxies. Because of the realism of the computer universe generated in the Eagle project, we have a great deal of faith in our predictions for other Universes.
We expected to find that the abundance of Dark Energy in our universe was close to the upper limit for the abundant formation of stars, but our results show that this is far from true! Universes with much much larger Dark Energy contributions would still be inhabited by viable observers. This places the multiverse hypothesis on rocky ground, and suggests that we should focus our attention on improving the physical explanation for dark energy.
Our work has been written up in The Conversation, and that is a good place to find out more.