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
Prgomet M
(2022)
EDGE: The sensitivity of ultra-faint dwarfs to a metallicity-dependent initial mass function
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Pratt J
(2020)
Comparison of 2D and 3D compressible convection in a pre-main sequence star
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Porth L
(2020)
Fast estimation of aperture mass statistics - I. Aperture mass variance and an application to the CFHTLenS data
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Porth L
(2021)
Fast estimation of aperture-mass statistics - II. Detectability of higher order statistics in current and future surveys
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Popescu A
(2021)
NNLO QCD study of polarised $W^+W^-$ production at the LHC
Poole-McKenzie R
(2020)
Informing dark matter direct detection limits with the ARTEMIS simulations
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Pontzen A
(2021)
EDGE: a new approach to suppressing numerical diffusion in adaptive mesh simulations of galaxy formation
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Poncelet R
(2021)
NNLO QCD study of polarised W+W- production at the LHC
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Pluriel W
(2020)
ARES. III. Unveiling the Two Faces of KELT-7 b with HST WFC3*
in The Astronomical Journal
Ploeckinger S
(2020)
Radiative cooling rates, ion fractions, molecule abundances, and line emissivities including self-shielding and both local and metagalactic radiation fields
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Pinte C
(2020)
Rocking shadows in broken circumbinary discs
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
Pierens A
(2023)
Three-dimensional evolution of radiative circumbinary discs: The size and shape of the inner cavity
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Pichon C
(2020)
Why do extremely massive disc galaxies exist today?
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Pichon C
(2020)
And yet it flips: connecting galactic spin and the cosmic web
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Phillips M
(2020)
A new set of atmosphere and evolution models for cool T-Y brown dwarfs and giant exoplanets
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Pfeifer S
(2020)
The bahamas project: effects of a running scalar spectral index on large-scale structure
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Pfeifer S
(2020)
The BAHAMAS project: effects of dynamical dark energy on large-scale structure
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Pfeffer J
(2020)
Predicting accreted satellite galaxy masses and accretion redshifts based on globular cluster orbits in the E-MOSAICS simulations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Pfeffer J
(2022)
Using the EAGLE simulations to elucidate the origin of disc surface brightness profile breaks as a function of mass and environment
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Pezzella M
(2021)
A method for calculating temperature-dependent photodissociation cross sections and rates.
in Physical chemistry chemical physics : PCCP
Pezzella M
(2021)
A method for calculating temperature-dependent photodissociation cross sections and rates.
in Physical chemistry chemical physics : PCCP
Pettini M
(2020)
A bound on the 12C/13C ratio in near-pristine gas with ESPRESSO
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Pellen M
(2022)
Angular coefficients in $$\hbox {W}+\hbox {j}$$ production at the LHC with high precision
in The European Physical Journal C
Pedersen C
(2021)
An emulator for the Lyman-a forest in beyond-?CDM cosmologies
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Pedersen C
(2020)
Massive neutrinos and degeneracies in Lyman-alpha forest simulations
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Pearce F
(2021)
Redshift evolution of the hot intracluster gas metallicity in the C-EAGLE cluster simulations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Pearce F
(2020)
Hydrostatic mass estimates of massive galaxy clusters: a study with varying hydrodynamics flavours and non-thermal pressure support
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Patsourakos S
(2020)
Decoding the Pre-Eruptive Magnetic Field Configurations of Coronal Mass Ejections
in Space Science Reviews
Pastorek A
(2022)
New physical insights: Formamide discharge decomposition and the role of fragments in the formation of large biomolecules.
in Spectrochimica acta. Part A, Molecular and biomolecular spectroscopy
Pastorek A
(2022)
Time-resolved fourier transform infrared emission spectroscopy of NH radical in the X3S- ground state
in Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer
Parrott W
(2022)
$V_{cs}$ determination from $D \to{}K \ell \nu$
Parrott W
(2021)
Toward accurate form factors for B -to-light meson decay from lattice QCD
in Physical Review D
Pariat E
(2023)
Comparison of magnetic energy and helicity in coronal jet simulations
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Panic O
(2020)
TW Hya: an old protoplanetary disc revived by its planet
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Pandya A
(2022)
Dynamics of a nonminimally coupled scalar field in asymptotically AdS 4 spacetime
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Pakmor R
(2020)
The orbital phase space of contracted dark matter haloes
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Pagano P
(2020)
Effect of coronal loop structure on wave heating through phase mixing
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Pagano P
(2020)
Hydrogen non-equilibrium ionisation effects in coronal mass ejections
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Owens A
(2021)
ExoMol line lists - XLI. High-temperature molecular line lists for the alkali metal hydroxides KOH and NaOH
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Owens A
(2022)
ExoMol line lists - XLVII. Rovibronic molecular line list of the calcium monohydroxide radical (CaOH)
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Owens A
(2021)
Theoretical rovibronic spectroscopy of the calcium monohydroxide radical (CaOH).
in The Journal of chemical physics
Owen J
(2020)
Massive discs around low-mass stars
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Owen J
(2020)
Testing exoplanet evaporation with multitransiting systems
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Orkney M
(2022)
EDGE: the puzzling ellipticity of Eridanus II's star cluster and its implications for dark matter at the heart of an ultra-faint dwarf
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
Oppenheimer B
(2020)
Feedback from supermassive black holes transforms centrals into passive galaxies by ejecting circumgalactic gas
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Olsen K
(2021)
sígame v3: Gas Fragmentation in Postprocessing of Cosmological Simulations for More Accurate Infrared Line Emission Modeling
in The Astrophysical Journal
Offler S
(2020)
News from bottomonium spectral functions in thermal QCD
Norman S
(2021)
Stars Crushed by Black Holes. I. On the Energy Distribution of Stellar Debris in Tidal Disruption Events
in The Astrophysical Journal
Nobels F
(2022)
The interplay between AGN feedback and precipitation of the intracluster medium in simulations of galaxy groups and clusters
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 |