DiRAC 2.5y - Networks and Data Management
Lead Research Organisation:
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON
Department Name: Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
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 DiRAC2 HPC facility has been operating since 2012, providing computing resources for theoretical research
in all areas of particle physics, astronomy, cosmology and nuclear physics supported by STFC. It is a highly productive facility, generating 200-250 papers annually in international, peer-reviewed journals. However, the DiRAC facility risks becoming uncompetitive as it has remained static in terms of overall capability since 2012. The DiRAC-2.5x investment in 2017/18 mitigated the risk of hardware failures, by replacing our oldest hardware components. However, as the factor 5 oversubscription of the most recent RAC call demonstrated, the science programme in 2019/20 and beyond requires a significant uplift in DiRAC's compute capability. The main purpose of the requested funding for the DiRAC2.5y project is to provide a factor 2 increase in computing across all DiRAC services to enable the facility to remain competitive during 2019/20 in anticipation of future funding for DiRAC-3.
DiRAC2.5y builds on the success of the DiRAC HPC facility and will provide the resources needed to support cutting-edge research during 2019 in all areas of science supported by STFC. While the funding is required to remain competitive, the science programme will continue to be world-leading. Examples of the projects which will benefit from this investment include:
(i) lattice quantum chromodynamics (QCD) calculations of the properties of fundamental particles from first principles;
(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;
(iii) simulations of the merger of pairs of black holes amnwhich generate gravitational waves such as those recently discovered by the LIGO consortium;
(iv) the most realistic simulations to date of the formation and evolution of galaxies in the Universe;
(v) the accretion of gas onto supermassive black holes, the most efficient means of extracting energy from matter and the engine which drives galaxy evolution;
(vi) new models of our own Milky Way galaxy calibrated using new data from the European Space Agency's GAIA satellite;
(vii) detailed simulations of the interior of the sun and of planetary interiors;
(viii) the formation of stars in clusters - for the first time it will be possible to follow the formation of massive stars.
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 DiRAC2 HPC facility has been operating since 2012, providing computing resources for theoretical research
in all areas of particle physics, astronomy, cosmology and nuclear physics supported by STFC. It is a highly productive facility, generating 200-250 papers annually in international, peer-reviewed journals. However, the DiRAC facility risks becoming uncompetitive as it has remained static in terms of overall capability since 2012. The DiRAC-2.5x investment in 2017/18 mitigated the risk of hardware failures, by replacing our oldest hardware components. However, as the factor 5 oversubscription of the most recent RAC call demonstrated, the science programme in 2019/20 and beyond requires a significant uplift in DiRAC's compute capability. The main purpose of the requested funding for the DiRAC2.5y project is to provide a factor 2 increase in computing across all DiRAC services to enable the facility to remain competitive during 2019/20 in anticipation of future funding for DiRAC-3.
DiRAC2.5y builds on the success of the DiRAC HPC facility and will provide the resources needed to support cutting-edge research during 2019 in all areas of science supported by STFC. While the funding is required to remain competitive, the science programme will continue to be world-leading. Examples of the projects which will benefit from this investment include:
(i) lattice quantum chromodynamics (QCD) calculations of the properties of fundamental particles from first principles;
(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;
(iii) simulations of the merger of pairs of black holes amnwhich generate gravitational waves such as those recently discovered by the LIGO consortium;
(iv) the most realistic simulations to date of the formation and evolution of galaxies in the Universe;
(v) the accretion of gas onto supermassive black holes, the most efficient means of extracting energy from matter and the engine which drives galaxy evolution;
(vi) new models of our own Milky Way galaxy calibrated using new data from the European Space Agency's GAIA satellite;
(vii) detailed simulations of the interior of the sun and of planetary interiors;
(viii) the formation of stars in clusters - for the first time it will be possible to follow the formation of massive stars.
Planned Impact
The anticipated impact of the DiRAC2.5y HPC facility aligns closely with the recently published UK Industrial Strategy. As such, many of our key impacts will be driven by our engagements with industry. Each service provider for DiRAC2.5y has a local industrial strategy to deliver increased levels of industrial returns over the next three years.
The "Pathways to impact" document which is attached to this proposal describes the overall industrial strategy for the DiRAC facility, including our strategic goals and key performance indicators.
The "Pathways to impact" document which is attached to this proposal describes the overall industrial strategy for the DiRAC facility, including our strategic goals and key performance indicators.
Organisations
Publications
Chadha-Day F
(2024)
ALP anarchy
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Chan T
(2024)
The impact and response of mini-haloes and the interhalo medium on cosmic reionization
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Choustikov N
(2024)
The Physics of Indirect Estimators of Lyman Continuum Escape and their Application to High-Redshift JWST Galaxies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Choustikov N
(2024)
The great escape: understanding the connection between Ly a emission and LyC escape in simulated JWST analogues
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Christie D
(2024)
Longitudinal filtering, sponge layers, and equatorial jet formation in a general circulation model of gaseous exoplanets
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Chung-Jukko L
(2024)
Multimessenger signals from compact axion star mergers
in Physical Review D
Clough K
(2024)
What no one has seen before: gravitational waveforms from warp drive collapse
in The Open Journal of Astrophysics
Coleman G
(2024)
On the properties of free-floating planets originating in circumbinary planetary systems
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Coleman G
(2024)
Constraining the formation history of the TOI-1338/BEBOP-1 circumbinary planetary system
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Coleman G
(2024)
Photoevaporation obfuscates the distinction between wind and viscous angular momentum transport in protoplanetary discs
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Collier M
(2024)
Galaxy clustering in modified gravity from full-physics simulations - I. Two-point correlation functions
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Collins C
(2024)
Towards inferring the geometry of kilonovae
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Contreras S
(2024)
Validating the clustering predictions of empirical models with the FLAMINGO simulations
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Cui W
(2024)
The HYENAS project: a prediction for the X-ray undetected galaxy groups
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Dai K
(2024)
Impact Momentum Transfer-Insights from Numerical Simulation of Impacts on Large Boulders of Asteroids
in The Planetary Science Journal
Dai Z
(2024)
Physics-informed neural networks in the recreation of hydrodynamic simulations from dark matter
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Daley-Yates S
(2024)
Simulating stellar coronal rain and slingshot prominences
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Davey J
(2025)
The effect of spectroscopic binning on atmospheric retrievals
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Davies C
(2024)
Constraining modified gravity with weak-lensing peaks
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Davies C
(2025)
Utility of a hybrid approach to the hadronic vacuum polarization contribution to the muon anomalous magnetic moment
in Physical Review D
Del Debbio L
(2024)
Absorbing discretization effects with a massive renormalization scheme: The charm-quark mass
in Physical Review D
Delaney J
(2024)
Radiative transitions in charmonium from lattice QCD
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Dethero M
(2024)
The shape of convection in 2D and 3D global simulations of stellar interiors
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Dhandha J
(2024)
Decaying turbulence in molecular clouds: how does it affect filament networks and star formation?
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Dome T
(2025)
Increased burstiness at high redshift in multiphysics models combining supernova feedback, radiative transfer, and cosmic rays
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Dong-Páez C
(2024)
The Uchuu-SDSS galaxy light-cones: a clustering, redshift space distortion and baryonic acoustic oscillation study
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Drew A
(2024)
Axion string source modeling
in Physical Review D
Dudek J
(2024)
Coupled-channel J - - meson resonances from lattice QCD
in Physical Review D
Duguid C
(2024)
Shear-driven magnetic buoyancy in the solar tachocline: dependence of the mean electromotive force on diffusivity and latitude
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Durán-Camacho E
(2024)
Self-consistent modelling of the Milky Way structure using live potentials
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Dutta R
(2024)
Metal line emission around z < 1 galaxies
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Eilers A
(2024)
EIGER. VI. The Correlation Function, Host Halo Mass, and Duty Cycle of Luminous Quasars at z ? 6
in The Astrophysical Journal
Elley M
(2025)
Robustness of inflation to kinetic inhomogeneities
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Elsender D
(2024)
An implicit algorithm for simulating the dynamics of small dust grains with smoothed particle hydrodynamics
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Ereza J
(2024)
The Uchuu - glam BOSS and eBOSS LRG lightcones: exploring clustering and covariance errors
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Etherington A
(2024)
Strong gravitational lensing's 'external shear' is not shear
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Evstafyeva T
(2024)
Gravitational-Wave Data Analysis with High-Precision Numerical Relativity Simulations of Boson Star Mergers.
in Physical review letters
Farren G
(2024)
The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Cosmology from Cross-correlations of unWISE Galaxies and ACT DR6 CMB Lensing
in The Astrophysical Journal
Feng J
(2024)
On the evolution of the observed mass-to-length relationship for star-forming filaments
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Ferlito F
(2024)
Ray-tracing versus Born approximation in full-sky weak lensing simulations of the MillenniumTNG project
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Feron J
(2024)
The Lyman-limit photon mean free path at the end of late reionization in the Sherwood-Relics simulations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Forrest B
(2024)
MAGAZ3NE: Massive, Extremely Dusty Galaxies at z ~ 2 Lead to Photometric Overestimation of Number Densities of the Most Massive Galaxies at 3 < z < 4*
in The Astrophysical Journal
Forzano N
(2023)
Lattice studies of Sp(2N) gauge theories using GRID
Fu B
(2024)
Testing realistic SO(10) SUSY GUTs with proton decay and gravitational waves
in Physical Review D
Gaire B
(2024)
Maintaining spherical polarization in solar wind plasma
in Nature Astronomy
Galbiati M
(2024)
MUSE Analysis of Gas around Galaxies (MAGG) VI. The cool and enriched gas environment of z ? 3 Ly a emitters
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Garg P
(2024)
Theoretical Strong-line Metallicity Diagnostics for the JWST Era
in The Astrophysical Journal
Gayer L
(2025)
Highly excited B, Bs and Bc meson spectroscopy from lattice QCD
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Georgy C
(2024)
3D simulations of a neon burning convective shell in a massive star
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
| Title | Collaboration with Atempo |
| Description | Tape to Tape data transfter between DiRAC sites. |
| Type Of Technology | Software |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Open Source License? | Yes |
| Impact | Proof of COncept that data could be read from Tape stores remotely via a remote file system |
| Title | Fast Network Links for Durham and Cambridge Univeristies |
| Description | The Universeities and Cambridge are now linked by a highly performant Network |
| Type Of Technology | Physical Model/Kit |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Impact | Both HEIs are able to ingest data at a faster rate |
| Description | Member of UKRI E-Infrastructure Expert Panel 2017-2019 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Created 7 white papers for UKRI which detailed a Roadmap for future e-Infrastructure funding in the UK |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017,2018,2019 |