Edinburgh DiRAC Resource Grant
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Edinburgh
Department Name: Sch of Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
DiRAC (Distributed Research utilising Advanced Computing) is the integrated supercomputing facility for theoretical modelling and HPC-based research in particle physics, nuclear physics, astronomy and cosmology, areas in which the UK is world-leading. It was funded as a result of investment of £12.32 million, from the Government's Large Facilities Capital Fund, together with investment from STFC and from universities. In 2012, the DiRAC facility was upgraded with a further £15 million capital investment from government (DiRAC-2).
The DiRAC facility provides a variety of computer architectures, matching machine architecture to the algorithm design and requirements of the research problems to be solved. The science facilitated includes: using supercomputers to enable scientists to calculate what theories of the early universe predict and to test them against observations of the present universe; undertaking lattice field theory calculations whose primary aim is to increase the predictive power of the Standard Model of elementary particle interactions through numerical simulation of Quantum Chromodynamics; carrying out state-of-the-art cosmological simulations, including the large-scale distribution of dark matter, the formation of dark matter haloes, the formation and evolution of galaxies and clusters, the physics of the intergalactic medium and the properties of the intracluster gas.
This grant is to support the continued operation of the DiRAC facilities until 2017 to ensure that the UK remains one of the world-leaders of theoretical modelling in particle physics, astronomy and cosmology.
The DiRAC facility provides a variety of computer architectures, matching machine architecture to the algorithm design and requirements of the research problems to be solved. The science facilitated includes: using supercomputers to enable scientists to calculate what theories of the early universe predict and to test them against observations of the present universe; undertaking lattice field theory calculations whose primary aim is to increase the predictive power of the Standard Model of elementary particle interactions through numerical simulation of Quantum Chromodynamics; carrying out state-of-the-art cosmological simulations, including the large-scale distribution of dark matter, the formation of dark matter haloes, the formation and evolution of galaxies and clusters, the physics of the intergalactic medium and the properties of the intracluster gas.
This grant is to support the continued operation of the DiRAC facilities until 2017 to ensure that the UK remains one of the world-leaders of theoretical modelling in particle physics, astronomy and cosmology.
Planned Impact
The high-performance computing applications supported by DiRAC typically involve new algorithms and implementations optimised for high energy efficiency which impose demands on computer architectures that the computing industry has found useful for hardware and system software design and testing.
DiRAC researchers have on-going collaborations with computing companies that maintain this strong connection between the scientific goals of the DiRAC Consortium and the development of new computing technologies that drive the commercial high-performance computing market, with economic benefits to the companies involved and more powerful computing capabilities available to other application areas including many that address socio-economic challenges.
DiRAC researchers have on-going collaborations with computing companies that maintain this strong connection between the scientific goals of the DiRAC Consortium and the development of new computing technologies that drive the commercial high-performance computing market, with economic benefits to the companies involved and more powerful computing capabilities available to other application areas including many that address socio-economic challenges.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Richard Kenway (Principal Investigator) | |
| Peter Boyle (Co-Investigator) |
Publications
Huscher E
(2021)
The changing circumgalactic medium over the last 10 Gyr - I. Physical and dynamical properties
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Appleby S
(2021)
The low-redshift circumgalactic medium in simba
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Witstok J
(2021)
Prospects for observing the low-density cosmic web in Lyman- a emission
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Glowacki M
(2021)
The redshift evolution of the baryonic Tully-Fisher relation in SIMBA
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Robertson A
(2021)
The galaxy-galaxy strong lensing cross-sections of simulated ?CDM galaxy clusters
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
Mellor T
(2021)
Artificial Symmetries for Calculating Vibrational Energies of Linear Molecules
in Symmetry
Young A
(2021)
Chemical signatures of a warped protoplanetary disc
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Richings A
(2021)
Unravelling the physics of multiphase AGN winds through emission line tracers
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Ryan S
(2021)
Excited and exotic bottomonium spectroscopy from lattice QCD
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Czakon M
(2021)
Next-to-Next-to-Leading Order Study of Three-Jet Production at the LHC.
in Physical review letters
Cao K
(2021)
Studying galaxy cluster morphological metrics with mock-X
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Mukherjee S
(2021)
SEAGLE - II. Constraints on feedback models in galaxy formation from massive early-type strong-lens galaxies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Mitchell M
(2021)
A general framework to test gravity using galaxy clusters III: observable-mass scaling relations in f ( R ) gravity
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Haworth T
(2021)
Warm millimetre dust in protoplanetary discs near massive stars
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Hatton D
(2021)
Determination of m ¯ b / m ¯ c and m ¯ b from n f = 4 lattice QCD + QED
in Physical Review D
Matsumoto J
(2021)
Magnetic inhibition of the recollimation instability in relativistic jets
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Cossu G
(2021)
Nonperturbative Infrared Finiteness in a Superrenormalizable Scalar Quantum Field Theory.
in Physical review letters
Jackson R
(2021)
Dark matter-deficient dwarf galaxies form via tidal stripping of dark matter in interactions with massive companions
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Popescu A
(2021)
NNLO QCD study of polarised $W^+W^-$ production at the LHC
Johnston C
(2021)
A fast multi-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic formulation of the transition region adaptive conduction (TRAC) method
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Chawdhry H
(2021)
Two-loop leading-color helicity amplitudes for three-photon production at the LHC
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Hatton D
(2021)
Determination of m ¯ b / m ¯ c and m ¯ b from n f = 4 lattice QCD + QED
in Physical Review D
Owens A
(2021)
Theoretical rovibronic spectroscopy of the calcium monohydroxide radical (CaOH).
in The Journal of chemical physics
Halim S
(2021)
Assessing the survivability of biomarkers within terrestrial material impacting the lunar surface
in Icarus
Ragusa E
(2021)
Circumbinary and circumstellar discs around the eccentric binary IRAS 04158+2805 - a testbed for binary-disc interaction
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Orkney M
(2021)
EDGE: two routes to dark matter core formation in ultra-faint dwarfs
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Suarez T
(2021)
Modelling intergalactic low ionization metal absorption line systems near the epoch of reionization
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Young A
(2021)
Chemical signatures of a warped protoplanetary disc
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Changeat Q
(2021)
The Hubble WFC3 Emission Spectrum of the Extremely Hot Jupiter KELT-9b
in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Hernández-Aguayo C
(2021)
Galaxy formation in the brane world I: overview and first results
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Baxter E
(2021)
The correlation of high-redshift galaxies with the thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect traces reionization
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Constantino T
(2021)
Suppression of lithium depletion in young low-mass stars from fast rotation
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Bartlett D
(2021)
Spatially offset black holes in the Horizon-AGN simulation and comparison to observations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Reid J
(2021)
Linking computational models to follow the evolution of heated coronal plasma
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Andrade T
(2021)
GRChombo: An adaptable numerical relativity code for fundamental physics
in Journal of Open Source Software
Barrera-Hinojosa C
(2021)
Vector modes in ?CDM: the gravitomagnetic potential in dark matter haloes from relativistic N -body simulations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Barrera-Hinojosa C
(2021)
Vector modes in ?CDM: the gravitomagnetic potential in dark matter haloes from relativistic N -body simulations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Bennett E
(2021)
Glueballs and strings in S p ( 2 N ) Yang-Mills theories
in Physical Review D
Lovell C
(2021)
First Light And Reionization Epoch Simulations (FLARES) - I. Environmental dependence of high-redshift galaxy evolution
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Hou J
(2021)
How well is angular momentum accretion modelled in semi-analytic galaxy formation models?
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Cheung G
(2021)
DK I = 0, $$ D\overline{K} $$ I = 0, 1 scattering and the $$ {D}_{s0}^{\ast } $$(2317) from lattice QCD
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Bahé Y
(2021)
Strongly lensed cluster substructures are not in tension with ?CDM
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Thomas N
(2021)
The radio galaxy population in the simba simulations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Hughes D
(2021)
Double-diffusive Magnetic Layering
in The Astrophysical Journal
Fyfe L
(2021)
Forward modelling of heating within a coronal arcade
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Olsen K
(2021)
sígame v3: Gas Fragmentation in Postprocessing of Cosmological Simulations for More Accurate Infrared Line Emission Modeling
in The Astrophysical Journal
Silva HO
(2021)
Dynamical Descalarization in Binary Black Hole Mergers.
in Physical review letters
Hamilton E
(2021)
Model of gravitational waves from precessing black-hole binaries through merger and ringdown
in Physical Review D
Zhu Y
(2021)
Chasing the Tail of Cosmic Reionization with Dark Gap Statistics in the Lya Forest over 5 < z < 6
in The Astrophysical Journal
Shao S
(2021)
The survival of globular clusters in a cuspy Fornax
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
| Description | In December 2009, the STFC Facility, DiRAC, was established to provide distributed High Performance Computing (HPC) services for theoretical modelling and HPC-based research in particle physics, astronomy and cosmology. DiRAC provides a variety of computer architectures, matching machine architecture to the algorithm design and requirements of the research problems to be solved. This grant funds the continued operation of the 1.3Pflop/s Blue Gene/Q system at the University of Edinburgh, which was co-developed by Peter Boyle (University of Edinburgh) and IBM to run with high energy efficiency for months at a time on a single problem to solve some of the most complex problems in physics, particularly the strong interactions of quarks and gluons. The DiRAC Facility supports over 250 active researchers at 27 UK HEIs. This includes the research projects of 100 funded research staff (PDRAs and Research Fellows), over 50 post-graduate projects, and £1.6M of funded research grants. |
| Exploitation Route | Theoretical results obtained input to a range of experimental programmes aiming to increase our understanding of Nature. Algorithms and software developed provide input to computer design. |
| Sectors | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) |
| URL | http://dirac.ac.uk/ |
| Description | Intel IPAG QCD codesign project |
| Organisation | Intel Corporation |
| Department | Intel Corporation (Jones Farm) |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | We have collaborated with Intel corporation since 2014 with $720k of total direct funding, starting initially as an Intel parallel computing centre, and expanding to direct close collaboration with Intel Pathfinding and Architecture Group. |
| Collaborator Contribution | We have performed detailed optimisation of QCD codes (Wilson, Domain Wall, Staggered) on Intel many core architectures. We have investigated the memory system and interconnect performance, particularly on Intel's latest interconnect hardware called Omnipath. We found serious performance issues and worked with Intel to plan a solution and this has been verified and is available as beta software. It will reach general availability in the Intel MPI 2019 release, and allow threaded concurrent communications in MPI for the first time. A joint paper on the resolution to this was written with the Intel MPI team, and the application of the same QCD programming techniques to machine learning gradient reduction was applied in the paper to the Baidu Research all reduce library, demonstrating a 10x gain for this critical step in machine learning in clustered environments. We are also working with Intel verifying future architectures that will deliver the exascale performance in 2021. |
| Impact | We have performed detailed optimisation of QCD codes (Wilson, Domain Wall, Staggered) on Intel many core architectures. We have investigated the memory system and interconnect performance, particularly on Intel's latest interconnect hardware called Omnipath. We found serious performance issues and worked with Intel to plan a solution and this has been verified and is available as beta software. It will reach general availability in the Intel MPI 2019 release, and allow threaded concurrent communications in MPI for the first time. A joint paper on the resolution to this was written with the Intel MPI team, and the application of the same QCD programming techniques to machine learning gradient reduction was applied in the paper to the Baidu Research all reduce library, demonstrating a 10x gain for this critical step in machine learning in clustered environments. This collaboration has been renewed annually in 2018, 2019, 2020. Two DiRAC RSE's were hired by Intel to work on the Turing collaboration. |
| Start Year | 2016 |