A supercomputer in Durham is doubling its memory capacity to simulate black hole mergers, galaxy formation, and the interiors of stars and planets. This matters because the most fundamental questions in physics—how the universe began, what it is made of, and how it evolves—cannot be answered by observation and experiment alone. The equations that describe these phenomena are too complex to solve with pen and paper. Large-scale simulations are the only way to test theories against real data, for example by modelling the gravitational waves from colliding black holes that LIGO recently detected, or by recreating the formation of galaxies over billions of years. If the research succeeds, it will produce more accurate theoretical predictions against which astronomers and particle physicists can compare their observations. This is primarily curiosity-driven fundamental science with no immediate practical application. However, the computational techniques developed here—code optimisation, data mining, and visualisation—train researchers in skills that transfer directly to industry. Past investments in similar high-performance computing have also fed into weather forecasting, materials design, and drug discovery, though those are not the goals of this project.
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Physicists across the astronomy, nuclear and particle physics communities are focussed on understanding how the Universe works at a very fundamental level. The distance scales with which they work vary by 50 orders of magnitude from the smallest distances probed by experiments at the Large Hadron Collider, deep within the atomic nucleus, to the largest scale galaxy clusters discovered out in space. The Science challenges, however, are linked through questions such as: How did the Universe begin and how is it evolving? and What are the fundamental constituents and fabric of the Universe and how do they interact? Progress requires new astronomical observations and experimental data but also new theoretical insights. Theoretical understanding comes increasingly from large-scale computations that allow us to confront the consequences of our theories very accurately with the data or allow us to interrogate the data in detail to extract information that has impact on our theories. These computations test the fastest computers that we have and push the boundaries of technology in this sector. They also provide an excellent environment for training students in state-of-the-art techniques for code optimisation and data mining and visualisation. The DiRAC-2.5 project builds on the success of the DiRAC HPC facility and will provide the resources needed to support cutting edge research during 2017 in all areas of science supported by STFC. Specifically the funding sort by Durham will allow: A factor 2 increase in the computational power of the DiRAC supercomputer at the University of Durham, which is designed for simulations requiring large amounts of computer memory. The usage of the system will be decided by the DiRAC Resource Allocation Committee primarily, but it is envisaged that the enhanced system will be used, for example, to: (i) simulate the merger of pairs of black holes which generate gravitational waves such as those recently discovered by the LIGO consortium; (ii) perform the most realistic simulations to date of the formation and evolution of galaxies in the Universe (iii) carry out detailed simulations of the interior of the sun and of planetary interiors.
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