Supercomputer Simulates Extreme Physics
A powerful supercomputer code update will allow laboratories and universities a better understanding of high-energy density physics and provide insight into the basic properties of matter in extreme situations.
Computer simulations have grown more powerful lately, with researchers using them to study everything from tsunamis to border control. Soon, researchers may be able to use supercomputers to simulate complicated high-energy density physics (HEDP) experiments, according to scientists at the University of Chicago’s Flash Center for Computational Science.
Fusion experiments, like this one National Ignition Facility at LLNL, previously required complex and expensive equipment. The software updates will allow for accurate computer simulations of these experiments.
In April, the team released FLASH 4-alpha, an updated version of a supercomputer code previously used to simulate exploding stars. This is the first FLASH code powerful enough to simulate HEDP, and researchers anticipate using it to study the basic properties of matter at high densities and temperatures.
“The enhanced FLASH code is an open toolset for designing and analyzing experiments that address questions about the nature of planetary interiors, the creation of elements via nuclear processes, and how matter behaves in violent shocks and other extreme conditions,” said Don Lamb, director of the Flash Center and the Robert A. Millikan Distinguished Service Professor in Astronomy & Astrophysics at the University of Chicago.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration Advanced Simulation and Computing Program funded the development of the software updates, which will be used in HEDP research at major laboratories, including National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California and the Omega Laser Facility at the University of Rochester.
Source: Smarter Technology
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