APS March Meeting 2010
Volume 55, Number 2
Monday–Friday, March 15–19, 2010;
Portland, Oregon
Session V6: The Impact of Large Scale Computing on Research in Physics
8:00 AM–11:00 AM,
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Room: Portland Ballroom 253
Sponsoring
Unit:
DCOMP
Chair: Barry Schneider, National Science Foundation
Abstract ID: BAPS.2010.MAR.V6.1
Abstract: V6.00001 : Challenges for Large Scale Simulations
8:00 AM–8:36 AM
Preview Abstract
Abstract
Author:
Matthias Troyer
(ETH Zurich)
With computational approaches becoming ubiquitous the growing impact of large
scale computing on research influences both theoretical and experimental work. I
will review a few examples in condensed matter physics and quantum optics,
including the impact of computer simulations in the search for supersolidity,
thermometry in ultracold quantum gases, and the challenging search for novel
phases in strongly correlated electron systems. While only a decade ago such
simulations needed the fastest supercomputers, many simulations can now be
performed on small workstation clusters or even a laptop: what was previously
restricted to a few experts can now potentially be used by many. Only part of the
gain in computational capabilities is due to Moore's law and improvement in
hardware. Equally impressive is the performance gain due to new algorithms - as I
will illustrate using some recently developed algorithms. At the same time modern
peta-scale supercomputers offer unprecedented computational power and allow us
to tackle new problems and address questions that were impossible to solve
numerically only a few years ago. While there is a roadmap for future hardware
developments to exascale and beyond, the main challenges are on the algorithmic
and software infrastructure side. Among the problems that face the computational
physicist are: the development of new algorithms that scale to thousands of cores
and beyond, a software infrastructure that lifts code development to a higher level
and speeds up the development of new simulation programs for large scale
computing machines, tools to analyze the large volume of data obtained from such
simulations, and as an emerging field provenance-aware software that aims for
reproducibility of the complete computational workflow from model parameters to
the final figures. Interdisciplinary collaborations and collective efforts will be
required, in contrast to the cottage-industry culture currently present in many areas
of computational condensed matter physics.
To cite this abstract, use the following reference: http://meetings.aps.org/link/BAPS.2010.MAR.V6.1