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
Hamilton E
(2021)
Model of gravitational waves from precessing black-hole binaries through merger and ringdown
in Physical Review D
Han D
(2022)
Impact of Radiation Feedback on the Formation of Globular Cluster Candidates during Cloud-Cloud Collisions
in The Astrophysical Journal
Hands S
(2023)
Spectroscopy in the 2 + 1 D Thirring model with N = 1 domain wall fermions
in Physical Review D
Hands S
(2020)
Critical behavior in the single flavor Thirring model in 2 + 1 D
in Physical Review D
Hands S
(2015)
Domain wall fermions for planar physics
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Hannaford-Gunn A
(2022)
Generalized parton distributions from the off-forward Compton amplitude in lattice QCD
in Physical Review D
Harrison J
(2020)
R(J/?) and B_{c}^{-}?J/?l^{-}?[over ¯]_{l} Lepton Flavor Universality Violating Observables from Lattice QCD.
in Physical review letters
Harrison J
(2020)
B c ? J / ? form factors for the full q 2 range from lattice QCD
in Physical Review D
Harrison J
(2022)
B s ? D s * form factors for the full q 2 range from lattice QCD
in Physical Review D
Hartanto H
(2022)
Next-to-next-to-leading order QCD corrections to W b b ¯ production at the LHC
in Physical Review D
Hassan S
(2020)
Testing galaxy formation simulations with damped Lyman-a abundance and metallicity evolution
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Hassan S
(2022)
Reionization with Simba: How Much Does Astrophysics Matter in Modeling Cosmic Reionization?
in The Astrophysical Journal
Hatton D
(2021)
Bottomonium precision tests from full lattice QCD: Hyperfine splitting, ? leptonic width, and b quark contribution to e + e - ? hadrons
in Physical Review D
Hatton D
(2021)
Determination of m ¯ b / m ¯ c and m ¯ b from n f = 4 lattice QCD + QED
in Physical Review D
Hatton D
(2020)
Charmonium properties from lattice QCD + QED : Hyperfine splitting, J / ? leptonic width, charm quark mass, and a µ c
in Physical Review D
Hatton D
(2020)
QED interaction effects on heavy meson masses from lattice QCD + QED
in Physical Review D
Hatton D
(2020)
Renormalization of the tensor current in lattice QCD and the J / ? tensor decay constant
in Physical Review D
Haworth T
(2020)
The observational anatomy of externally photoevaporating planet-forming discs - I. Atomic carbon
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Haworth T
(2022)
An APEX search for carbon emission from NGC 1977 proplyds
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
He J
(2020)
Modelling the tightest relation between galaxy properties and dark matter halo properties from hydrodynamical simulations of galaxy formation
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
He Q
(2022)
Galaxy-galaxy strong lens perturbations: line-of-sight haloes versus lens subhaloes
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
He Q
(2022)
A forward-modelling method to infer the dark matter particle mass from strong gravitational lenses
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Heath R
(2020)
On the orbital evolution of binaries with circumbinary discs
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Heinesen A
(2022)
A prediction for anisotropies in the nearby Hubble flow
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Helfer T
(2022)
Malaise and remedy of binary boson-star initial data
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Hellinger P
(2022)
Ion-scale Transition of Plasma Turbulence: Pressure-Strain Effect
in The Astrophysical Journal
Henden N
(2020)
The baryon content of groups and clusters of galaxies in the FABLE simulations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Henriques B
(2020)
L-GALAXIES 2020: Spatially resolved cold gas phases, star formation, and chemical enrichment in galactic discs
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Hergt L
(2021)
Bayesian evidence for the tensor-to-scalar ratio r and neutrino masses m ? : Effects of uniform versus logarithmic priors
in Physical Review D
Hergt L
(2022)
Finite inflation in curved space
in Physical Review D
Hernández-Aguayo C
(2021)
Building a digital twin of a luminous red galaxy spectroscopic survey: galaxy properties and clustering covariance
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Hernández-Aguayo C
(2022)
Fast full N-body simulations of generic modified gravity: derivative coupling models
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Hernández-Aguayo C
(2021)
Galaxy formation in the brane world I: overview and first results
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Hildebrandt H
(2020)
KiDS+VIKING-450: Cosmic shear tomography with optical and infrared data
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Hill A
(2022)
Intrinsic alignments of the extended radio continuum emission of galaxies in the EAGLE simulations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Hill A
(2021)
The morphology of star-forming gas and its alignment with galaxies and dark matter haloes in the EAGLE simulations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Hillier A
(2023)
The role of cooling induced by mixing in the mass and energy cycles of the solar atmosphere
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Hindmarsh M
(2020)
Scaling Density of Axion Strings.
in Physical review letters
Ho S
(2020)
Morphological and Rotation Structures of Circumgalactic Mg ii Gas in the EAGLE Simulation and the Dependence on Galaxy Properties
in The Astrophysical Journal
Ho S
(2021)
How Identifying Circumgalactic Gas by Line-of-sight Velocity instead of the Location in 3D Space Affects O vi Measurements
in The Astrophysical Journal
Hori K
(2020)
Solitary magnetostrophic Rossby waves in spherical shells
in Journal of Fluid Mechanics
Horsley R
(2015)
Reply to "Comment on 'Lattice determination of S - ? mixing'"
in Physical Review D
Horsley R
(2015)
Lattice determination of Sigma-Lambda mixing
in Physical Review D
Horsley R
(2016)
QED effects in the pseudoscalar meson sector
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Horst L
(2021)
Multidimensional low-Mach number time-implicit hydrodynamic simulations of convective helium shell burning in a massive star
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Hou J
(2021)
How well is angular momentum accretion modelled in semi-analytic galaxy formation models?
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 |