HYDRA: an HPC facility for Pulsar Astrophysics

我们请求获得一台强大的超级计算机的资金，以帮助研究描述宇宙演化和行星运动的引力理论。到目前为止，爱因斯坦的广义相对论（GR）已经通过了所有的观测测试，但最近宇宙学的结果以及广义相对论与量子力学的不兼容性表明，广义相对论可能无法描述某些极端条件下宏观世界的引力相互作用。为了确定这些条件，需要对GR进行更严格的测试，所要求的计算能够找到相应的宇宙实验室：所要求的计算能力需要搜索洛弗尔望远镜和其他世界上最大的射电望远镜获得的射电脉冲星调查数据。脉冲星是旋转的中子星，沿着它们的磁轴发射射电光束，因此就像一个宇宙灯塔，当它们旋转时，将射电光束扫过宇宙。因此，脉冲星是一个宇宙时钟，它向我们发出“滴答声”，其规律性在许多情况下可以与地球上最好的原子钟相媲美，因为脉冲星本质上是一个巨大的飞轮，在空旷的太空中。我们可以用这些时钟来检验爱因斯坦的理论和其他引力理论，方法是在有大质量伴星（如其他中子星或黑洞）的双星系统中找到它们，并研究这些时钟在被大质量伴星扭曲的“时空”中如何运动。所要求的计算设施将能够找到迄今为止已知的最极端的双星系统，包括潜在存在的脉冲星-黑洞系统——引力物理学的终极实验室。

We request funds for the acquisition of a powerful supercomputer in order to help in the search for the theory of gravity that describes the evolution of the Universe as well as the movement of planets. So far, Einstein's theory of general relativity (GR) has passed all observational tests, but recent results in cosmology and the incompatibility of GR with quantum mechanics suggest that GR may fail to describe the gravitational interaction of the macroscopic world under some extreme conditions. In an attempt to determine these conditions, ever more stringent tests of GR need to be conducted, and the requested computing is capable of finding the corresponding cosmic laboratories: The requested computing power is required to search survey data obtained by the Lovell telescope and others of the world's largest radio-telescopes for radio pulsars. Pulsars are rotating neutron stars emitting radio beams along their magnetic axes and hence act like a cosmic lighthouses that sweep beams of radio light through the Universe as they rotate. A pulsar is therefore a cosmic clock which sends us its ``ticks'' with a regularity that in many cases rivals that of the best atomic clocks on Earth, as the pulsar is essentially a massive flywheel in empty space. We can use these clocks to put Einstein's theory and other theories of gravity to the test by finding them in binary systems with massive companions such as other neutron stars or black holes, and by studying how these clocks move in the 'space-time' distorted by a massive companion. The requested computing facility will be capable of finding the most extreme binary systems yet known, including classes of potentially existing pulsar - black hole systems -- the ultimate laboratories for gravitational physics.