Collaborative Research: Abacus: A New State-of-the-Art Cosmological N-body Code

合作研究：算盘：一种新的最先进的宇宙学 N 体代码

• 批准号: 1312699
• 负责人: Philip Pinto
• 金额: $ 35.74万
• 依托单位: University of Arizona
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-09-01 至 2016-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1312699&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Abacus; New; State

This project will further the development of a new computer code for cosmological N-body simulations. Abacus implements a novel method for computing gravitational forces that is a hundred times faster and substantially more accurate than current methods. It can be run on commodity graphics processing units and offers a vast improvement in price-performance. Observational surveys of large scale structure rely on cosmological simulations to calibrate their statistical estimators and compute accurate error bars, making it essential to run large grids of highly accurate simulations in order to realize the potential of current and future cosmological surveys. Abacus relies on a mathematical breakthrough that accomplishes a clean split between the near-field and far-field force on particles. The present work will add essential support for individual particle time steps, on-the-fly group finding and merger tree building, and light-cone outputs. The study will also extend Abacus to a parallel implementation, and allow release of a public version of the code.The research team will use Abacus for a first suite of large simulations, whose resulting halo catalogs, merger trees, and light-cone outputs will be made public as a direct benefit to current and future survey projects. Abacus is a game-changer, opening up the ability to do large simulations to many more astrophysicists at exactly the time that the need for large sets of large simulations will intensify. The mathematical approach of Abacus opens up substantial new possibilities in the solution of elliptic equations, one of the most common computational tasks across a wide range of scientific and engineering disciplines. Along the way, the project will train a post-doctoral researcher and a graduate student.

该项目将进一步开发用于宇宙 N 体模拟的新计算机代码。 Abacus 实现了一种计算重力的新颖方法，该方法比现有方法快一百倍，而且精确度大大提高。 它可以在商用图形处理单元上运行，并在性价比方面提供了巨大的改进。 大规模结构的观测调查依赖于宇宙学模拟来校准其统计估计器并计算准确的误差线，因此必须运行高精度模拟的大型网格，以实现当前和未来宇宙学调查的潜力。 Abacus 依赖于一项数学突破，实现了粒子上的近场力和远场力之间的清晰分离。 目前的工作将为单个粒子时间步骤、动态组查找和合并树构建以及光锥输出添加必要的支持。 该研究还将 Abacus 扩展到并行实施，并允许发布代码的公共版本。研究团队将使用 Abacus 进行第一套大型模拟，其产生的光环目录、合并树和光锥输出将被公开，作为当前和未来调查项目的直接利益。 Abacus 是一个游戏规则改变者，它为更多的天体物理学家提供了进行大型模拟的能力，而此时对大量大型模拟的需求将会加剧。 珠算的数学方法为椭圆方程的求解开辟了巨大的新可能性，椭圆方程是广泛的科学和工程学科中最常见的计算任务之一。 在此过程中，该项目将培养一名博士后研究员和一名研究生。