An Astronomical Computing System at Columbia University

哥伦比亚大学在天文学和天体物理学方面的研究活动最近经历了一次重大扩展，为物理系和天文学系分配了大量新资源。在过去的五年中，已经聘请了九名新教师，已经花费或承诺超过200万美元用于建筑翻新，另外还有40万美元作为新教师的启动资金。此外，该大学还同意以2:1的比例拨出32万美元，用于购买和安装现代计算机设备，以支持其年轻教师的各种研究项目。该合同提供了完成该系统采购所需的剩余三分之一的资金。需要基于convex的设施的重大科学项目已经在进行中；其中包括对九头蛇星系团进行的完整的体积有限的HI调查，以及PI进行的一些其他大孔径合成光谱线项目，在327兆赫频率上对银河面进行的调查，其分辨率和灵敏度都超过了以往所有调查的30倍。对几百颗K巨星的梯级光谱进行分析，对银河系凸起处进行广泛的拥挤场光度测定，这是一个更大的项目的一部分，该项目旨在揭示银河系的化学和动态演化，对其他广泛的数据集进行分析，包括白矮星的高分辨率光谱，活动星系核的发射线区域，类星体吸收线系统，以及几个与恒星中随时间对流有关的理论项目，星系形成和演化的数值研究，以及星际介质热不稳定性的新方法的研究。研究计算设备对于大部分研究项目的实施是必不可少的。

Research activity in astronomy and astrophysics at Columbia University has recently undergone a major expansion with the allocation of substantial new resources to the Departments of Physics and Astronomy: Nine new faculty members have been hired during the past five years, over $2 million has been spent or committed for building renovation and another $0.4 M has been awarded in startup money for the new faculty. In addition, the University has agreed to allot $320,000 in 2:1 matching funds toward the purchase and installation of a modern computing facility to support the varied research programs of its young faculty. This award provides the remaining 1/3 of the funds required to complete the acquisition of this system. Major science projects which necessitate the CONVEX-based facility are already underway; these include a complete volume-limited HI survey fo the Hydra cluster of galaxies and a number of other large aperture synthesis spectral line projects conducted by the PI, a survey of the Galactic plane at 327 MHz which exceeds all previous surveys be a factor of more than 30 in both resolution and sensitivity, analysis of several hundred echelle spectra of K giants and extensive crowded-field photometry in the Galactic bulge as part of a larger program directed at unravelling the chemical and dynamical evolution of the Galaxy, analysis of other extensive data sets including high-resolution optical spectra of white dwarfs, emission line regions of active galactic nuclei, and quasar absorption line systems, and several theoretical projects related to time-dependent convection in stars, numerical studies in the formation and evolution of galaxies, and the investigation of a novel approach to thermal instabilities in the interstellar medium. The research computing facility is essential for the conduct of much of this research program.