Collaborative Research: CDS&E: Renaissance Simulations Laboratory to Model and Explore the First Galaxies in the Universe

合作研究：CDS

• 批准号: 1615848
• 负责人: Michael Norman
• 金额: $ 37.06万
• 依托单位: University of California-San Diego
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-08-01 至 2019-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1615848&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; CDS& Renaissance; Simulations

A great challenge in astrophysics is to understand in detail how the initial smooth distribution of matter in the early Universe formed the first galaxies. Complementing observations of real galaxies, researchers use computational simulations to model the early Universe and study the results. This process allows one to learn how these first galaxies might have formed. However, the sheer size and complexity of such galaxy simulations present their own challenge as a single research group lacks the capacity to explore them fully. As a result, maximizing the scientific value of simulations demands new tools and services designed to foster the growth of a collaborative, multi-group research community. This project aims to develop and use a new virtual laboratory to enable transformative scientific inquiry on new and existing galaxy simulations, some of which were produced by prior NSF support. Enabling public access and unrestricted analysis and fostering a collaborative environment for sharing technology and results will ensure that galaxy simulations continue to be valuable within and beyond the research group that originally conducted them. This project addresses the national imperative to develop US cyber infrastructure and to develop US leadership in scientific research in astrophysics.More technically, with prior NSF support the investigators used the Blue Waters supercomputer at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) to perform the Renaissance Simulations: among the largest, most detailed simulations of the formation and evolution of the first galaxies to date. The Renaissance Simulations yielded a sample of over 3,000 high redshift (20 z 7) galaxies and were specifically designed to simulate the dominant sources responsible for preheating the intergalactic medium and reionization at an unprecedented level of detail. This project plans two related activities: (1) further analysis of the Renaissance Simulations; and (2) the creation of an open-data access portal, the Renaissance Simulation Laboratory (RSL), which will provide open access to this unique data corpus along with associated data analysis tools for the astronomical research community. Driving its design and utility, the investigators will use the RSL to carry out their own research investigations. The investigators' research processes will become part of the RSL in the form of executable "Jupyter" notebooks. The Jupyter Notebook, an evolution of the iPython Notebook, is a fundamental part of the RSL and is ushering in the era of open science. The investigators' use of Docker containers is equally compelling. By containerizing Jupyter Notebooks which execute pre-programmed data analysis workflows the investigators are able to bring computation to the data and share how they obtain their scientific results, a key step toward reproducible science. Users will have the option of downloading notebooks and associated data to their own platforms or executing them on San Diego Supercomputer Center and NCSA high performance platforms.

天体物理学的一个巨大挑战是详细了解早期宇宙中物质的初始平滑分布如何形成第一个星系。 补充对实际星系的观察结果，研究人员使用计算模拟对早期宇宙进行建模并研究结果。 这个过程允许人们了解这些第一个星系可能是如何形成的。 但是，此类星系模拟的纯粹规模和复杂性提出了自己的挑战，因为一个研究小组缺乏充分探索它们的能力。 结果，最大化模拟的科学价值需要新的工具和服务，旨在促进协作，多组研究社区的增长。 该项目旨在开发和使用新的虚拟实验室，以对新的和现有的Galaxy模拟进行变革性的科学询问，其中一些是由先前的NSF支持产生的。 实现公众访问和不受限制的分析，并促进共享技术和结果的协作环境，将确保Galaxy模拟在最初进行的研究小组内和之外都具有价值。 该项目解决了发展美国网络基础架构并发展我们在天体物理学科学研究方面的领导力的民族必要性。从技术上讲，在先前的NSF上，NSF支持研究人员在国家超级计算应用程序中心（NCSA）的蓝色水域超级计算机（NCSA）来表演文艺复兴模拟：其中最大的，最详细的形式的详细仿真和第一天的天然气效果。 文艺复兴模拟产生了3,000多个高红移（20 Z 7）星系的样本，并经过专门设计，以模拟负责预热层间培养基的主要来源，并以前所未有的细节级别进行回报。 该项目计划了两个相关活动：（1）进一步分析文艺复兴模拟； （2）创建开放数据访问门户，即文艺复兴模拟实验室（RSL），该实验室（RSL）将提供对该独特数据语料库的开放访问以及天文学研究社区的相关数据分析工具。 驾驶其设计和实用程序，调查人员将使用RSL进行自己的研究调查。 调查人员的研究过程将以可执行的“ Jupyter”笔记本的形式成为RSL的一部分。 Jupyter笔记本是Ipython笔记本的演变，是RSL的基本组成部分，在开放科学的时代迎来了。 研究人员对Docker容器的使用同样令人信服。 通过操纵jupyter笔记本，执行预先编程的数据分析工作流程，研究人员可以将计算带入数据并分享他们如何获得科学结果，这是迈向可重复科学的关键一步。 用户可以选择将笔记本和关联的数据下载到自己的平台上，或在圣地亚哥超级计算机中心和NCSA高性能平台上执行它们。