A supercomputer network called DiRAC is getting a major upgrade to simulate black hole mergers, galaxy formation, and the interiors of stars and planets. These calculations tackle fundamental questions about how the Universe began, how it evolves, and what it is made of—questions that cannot be answered by experiment or observation alone. The upgraded machines will let researchers model gravitational wave sources like those detected by LIGO, analyse data from the Gaia satellite to map the Milky Way, and improve predictions for particle collisions at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. Three dedicated software engineers will help scientists squeeze maximum performance from the hardware. This is fundamental science: it will not produce a product or service next year. But the same kind of large-scale computation that now tests theories of galaxy formation also drove advances in weather forecasting, medical imaging, and data analytics. The training students receive in code optimisation and data mining on these machines feeds directly into industries that rely on high-performance computing, from aerospace to finance.
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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. In addition to the existing DiRAC-2 services, from April 2017 DiRAC-2.5 will provide: 1) 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 enhanced system will be used 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. 2) A new High Performance Computer at Cambridge whose particular architecture is well suited to the theoretical problems that we want to tackle that utilise large amounts of data, either as input or being generated at intermediate stages of our calculations. Two key challenges that we will tackle are those of: (i) improving our understanding of the Milky Way through analysis of new data from the European Space Agency's GAIA satellite and (ii) improving the potential of experiments at CERN's Large Hadron Collider for discovery of new physics by increasing the accuracy of theoretical predictions for rare processes involving the fundamental constituents of matter known as quarks. 3) An additional 3500 compute cores on the DiRAC Complexity supercomputer at Leicester which will make it possible to carry out simulations of some of the most complex physical situation in the Universe. These include: (i) the formation of stars in clusters - for the first time it will be possible to follow the formation of stars many times more massive than the sun; (ii) the accretion of gas onto supermassive black holes, the most efficient means of extracting energy from matter and the engine which drives galaxy formation and evolution. 4) A team of three research software engineers who will help DiRAC researchers to ensure their scientific codes to extract the best possible performance from the hardware components of the DiRAC clusters. These highly skilled programmers will increase the effective computational power of the DiRAC facility during 2017.
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