Frontier supercomputer sets new bar for simulating the universe

[BootinUp]

Article Excerpt from Oak Ridge National Laboratory

The universe just got a whole lot bigger — or at least in the world of computer simulations, that is.

In early November, researchers at the Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory used the fastest supercomputer on the planet to run the largest astrophysical simulation of the universe ever conducted.

The achievement was made using the Frontier supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The calculations set a new benchmark for cosmological hydrodynamics simulations and provide a new foundation for simulating the physics of atomic matter and dark matter simultaneously. The simulation size corresponds to surveys undertaken by large telescope observatories, a feat that until now has not been possible at this scale.

“There are two components in the universe: dark matter — which as far as we know, only interacts gravitationally — and conventional matter, or atomic matter.” said project lead Salman Habib, division director for Computational Sciences at Argonne.

“So, if we want to know what the universe is up to, we need to simulate both of these things: gravity as well as all the other physics including hot gas, and the formation of stars, black holes and galaxies,” he said. “The astrophysical ‘kitchen sink’ so to speak. These simulations are what we call cosmological hydrodynamics simulations.”

Not surprisingly, the cosmological hydrodynamics simulations are significantly more computationally expensive and much more difficult to carry out compared to simulations of an expanding universe that only involve the effects of gravity.

https://www.ornl.gov/news/record-breaking-run-frontier-sets-new-bar-simulating-universe-exascale-era