Astrophysics---Understanding our cosmic origin through petascale computing
Anthony Mezzacappa · 2006
Massive stars die in stellar explosions known as core collapse supernovae. Such supernovae are a dominant source of elements in the Universe and, thus, an important link in our chain of origin from the Big Bang to the present day. Understanding how they occur will require three-dimensional, general relativistic, radiation-magnetohydrodynamics simulations that model the stellar core multifrequency and multiangle neutrino (radiation) transport, fluid instabilities and flow, rotation, magnetic field, and strong gravitational field. Such simulations will require petascale platforms, in turn requiring scalable solution algorithms for the underlying integro-partial differential equations, and a commensurate infrastructure for data management, networking, and visualization that will enable scientific discovery by a geographically distributed team. I will present the current state of the art and discuss near- and longer-term efforts. The ongoing rapid increase in supercomputer capability will allow us to address this Grand Challenge in earnest, in all of its complexity, for the first time.