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
Aurrekoetxea J
(2022)
Where is the ringdown: Reconstructing quasinormal modes from dispersive waves
in Physical Review D
Aviles A
(2020)
Marked correlation functions in perturbation theory
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Baek G
(2020)
Radiative Transfer Modeling of EC 53: An Episodically Accreting Class I Young Stellar Object
in The Astrophysical Journal
Bahé Y
(2021)
Strongly lensed cluster substructures are not in tension with ?CDM
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Bahé Y
(2022)
The importance of black hole repositioning for galaxy formation simulations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Bai Z
(2015)
Standard Model Prediction for Direct CP Violation in K?pp Decay.
in Physical review letters
Ballabio G
(2021)
HD 143006: circumbinary planet or misaligned disc?
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Ballabio G
(2023)
[O i ] 6300 Å emission as a probe of external photoevaporation of protoplanetary discs
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Bamber J
(2023)
Black hole merger simulations in wave dark matter environments
in Physical Review D
Bamber J
(2021)
Growth of accretion driven scalar hair around Kerr black holes
in Physical Review D
Bamber J
(2021)
Quasinormal modes of growing dirty black holes
in Physical Review D
Baraffe I
(2021)
Two-dimensional simulations of solar-like models with artificially enhanced luminosity I. Impact on convective penetration
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Baraffe I
(2022)
Local heating due to convective overshooting and the solar modelling problem
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Barausse E
(2020)
Prospects for fundamental physics with LISA
in General Relativity and Gravitation
Barnes D
(2021)
Characterizing hydrostatic mass bias with mock-X
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Barrera-Hinojosa C
(2020)
GRAMSES: a new route to general relativistic N -body simulations in cosmology. Part I. Methodology and code description
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Barrera-Hinojosa C
(2022)
Looking for a twist: probing the cosmological gravitomagnetic effect via weak lensing-kSZ cross-correlations
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
Barrera-Hinojosa C
(2020)
GRAMSES: a new route to general relativistic N -body simulations in cosmology. Part II. Initial conditions
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Bartlett D
(2021)
Constraints on Galileons from the positions of supermassive black holes
in Physical Review D
Bartlett D
(2021)
Calibrating galaxy formation effects in galactic tests of fundamental physics
in Physical Review D
Bartlett D
(2021)
Spatially offset black holes in the Horizon-AGN simulation and comparison to observations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Bastian N
(2020)
The globular cluster system mass-halo mass relation in the E-MOSAICS simulations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Bate M
(2020)
Photoionizing feedback in spiral arm molecular clouds
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Baugh C
(2022)
Modelling emission lines in star-forming galaxies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Baugh C
(2020)
Sensitivity analysis of a galaxy formation model
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
Beane S
(2021)
Charged multihadron systems in lattice QCD + QED
in Physical Review D
Becker C
(2020)
Proca-stinated cosmology. Part I. A N -body code for the vector Galileon
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Becker G
(2021)
The mean free path of ionizing photons at 5 < z < 6: evidence for rapid evolution near reionization
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Beckett A
(2021)
The relationship between gas and galaxies at z < 1 using the Q0107 quasar triplet
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Beg R
(2022)
Evolution, Structure, and Topology of Self-generated Turbulent Reconnection Layers
in The Astrophysical Journal
Bending T
(2022)
Supernovae and photoionizing feedback in spiral arm molecular clouds
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Benitez-Llambay A
(2021)
The Tail of Late-forming Dwarf Galaxies in ?CDM
in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Benitez-Llambay A
(2020)
The detailed structure and the onset of galaxy formation in low-mass gaseous dark matter haloes
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Bennett E
(2020)
Color dependence of tensor and scalar glueball masses in Yang-Mills theories
in Physical Review D
Bennett E
(2023)
Update on SU(2) with one adjoint Dirac flavor
Bennett E
(2021)
Glueballs and strings in S p ( 2 N ) Yang-Mills theories
in Physical Review D
Bennett E
(2020)
S p ( 4 ) gauge theories on the lattice: Quenched fundamental and antisymmetric fermions
in Physical Review D
Bennett J
(2020)
Resolving shocks and filaments in galaxy formation simulations: effects on gas properties and star formation in the circumgalactic medium
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Beraldo e Silva L
(2020)
Geometric properties of galactic discs with clumpy episodes
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Beraldo e Silva L
(2021)
Co-formation of the thin and thick discs revealed by APOGEE-DR16 and Gaia -DR2
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Bertulani C
(2021)
Examination of the sensitivity of quasifree reactions to details of the bound-state overlap functions
in Physical Review C
Bignell R
(2023)
Charm baryons at finite temperature on anisotropic lattices
Bilimogga P
(2022)
Using eagle simulations to study the effect of observational constraints on the determination of H i asymmetries in galaxies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Blondin S
(2022)
StaNdaRT: a repository of standardised test models and outputs for supernova radiative transfer
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Blum T
(2016)
Domain wall QCD with physical quark masses
in Physical Review D
Blum T
(2021)
Lattice determination of I = 0 and 2 p p scattering phase shifts with a physical pion mass
in Physical Review D
Blum T
(2017)
Erratum to: Lattice calculation of the leading strange quark-connected contribution to the muon g - 2
in Journal of High Energy Physics
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 |