Plasma Physics HEC Consortia

Plasma physics is the study of the properties of fully ionised gases or dense matter that exhibits similar collective behaviour. The processes, which need to be investigated, therefore cover kinetic theory of matter far from its equilibrium state, fluid dynamics of magnetised and conductive plasmas and the interaction of these processes across a huge range of time and length scales, often in complex geometries. Such problems are rarely tractable analytically and thus much of plasma physics resorts to High End Computing (HEC) to perform massive simulations.

This planned HEC Consortium will cover all aspects of computational plasma physics. This includes modelling for magnetic confinement fusion (MCF) devices to optimize reactor performance, simulations to optimize laser-particle accelerator sources, novel approaches to high-intensity laser plasma experiments and laser-driven fusion. In all these areas High End Computing (HEC) resources are needed for simulations which are essential to either guiding experiments and research programmes (including a reliable predictive capability for the performance of future plasma facilities) or interpreting the complex diagnostic sets from coupled multi-scale, non-linear and often relativistic processes.

To help maintain the UK's leading role in fusion reactor design and basic plasma physics the HEC Consortium requires a block allocation of UK National level computing resource. This will ease the access to such facilities and allow the UK to collectively plan computational programmes, which will require many years to complete, in the certainty that the computing resources will be available. Over the five-year duration of this HEC Consortium grant HEC architectures are likely to change and optimising codes for current and future machines is therefore essential. In addition new physics packages must be developed and implemented to keep the UK at the cutting edge of this research. The Consortium therefore also requires funding for software development to exploit the computing resources and keep codes world-leading.

The proposed HEC Consortium will therefore conduct simulations in support of the UK fusion programme; software development for novel physical processes and maintain the scientific impact of plasma and laser physics.

The proposed software development will extend the algorithms used in plasma physics codes and improve their efficiency through the introduction of mixed mode parallelism. This will be important to maintain the UK's role in fusion research and laser plasma physics. This will impact the development of international fusion experiments (ITER and NIF) as well as designs for demonstration reactors (DEMO and LIFE). In particle accelerator research the possibility exists for proton sources for radiotherapy and the QED-plasma coupling offer the opportunity for compact gamma-ray sources for nuclear physics research.

A direct UK beneficiary of this work will be AWE. The new approach to radiation hydrodynamic ALE code detailed in this project will have direct impact on AWE's own code development plans. In particular the application of performance modelling will ensure that the code continues to be developed with the latest national (and international) supercomputers as target systems. This will help AWE in restricting the choices they need to make when updating their own code and HPC systems. This will itself assist AWE in its role in ensuring national nuclear security.

In the longer term this project feeds into the international plans to develop fusion energy systems this century. If successful these reactors have the potential to change the world energy market, freeing us from the constraints of fossil fuel supply and directly addressing the problems of electricity supply without carbon dioxide emission. For the UK this could also guarantee a security of energy supply independent of regions that currently control the fossil fuel market.

The Consortium will also increase the skill base of UK computational plasma physics. This will establish a direct link between UK University research and the Hartree Centre. The trained software developer, named PDRA Bennett, will be ideally qualified to continue work in either University or at the Hartree Centre ensuring longevity to the code investment. It is also inevitable that a cohort of PhD students will be trained through the collaborating Universities in a culture of state-of-the-art software development and HEC. Many of these PhD students will take this experience into high tech. UK industry.