Institute for Computational Cosmology

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The Institute for Computational Cosmology (ICC) is one of nine Research Institutes[1] at Durham University, England. It was founded in November 2002 as part of the Ogden Centre for Fundamental Physics, which also includes the Institute for Particle Physics Phenomenology (IPPP). The ICC's primary mission is to advance fundamental knowledge in cosmology. Topics of active research include: the nature of dark matter and dark energy, the evolution of cosmic structure, the formation of galaxies, and the determination of fundamental parameters.

The current director of the ICC is Carlos Frenk; the deputy director is Shaun Cole. ICC researchers have played a central role[2][3][4] in the development of the standard model of cosmology, "ΛCDM". Because of the vast scale of questions in cosmology, advances often require supercomputer simulations in which a virtual Universe is allowed to evolve for 13.8 billion years from the Big Bang to the present day. The simulation is rerun with different ingredients or different physics, until it matches the observed Universe. This approach has required one of the most powerful supercomputers for academic research in the world, the “Cosmology Machine”.[5]

History

Durham University's extragalactic astronomy group was founded in the late 1970s, and secured in 1984-5 with the appointments of Carlos Frenk, Richard Ellis, and Tom Shanks. A group researching theoretical cosmology grew steadily during the 1980s and 1990s, mainly funded by the UK Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC). A dedicated building for theoretical cosmology was then funded through private donations, principally from alumnus Peter Ogden, and opened in 2002 by the Prime Minister, Tony Blair.[6] The group has grown in these new facilities, and the ICC now hosts more than 60 researchers, including theoretical and observational cosmologists, as well as astroparticle physicists.[7] Although the ICC is strictly speaking a theoretical institute, theory and observations in cosmology are intimately interwoven. Uniquely amongst Durham University's Research Institutes, the ICC and IPPP are structurally integrated within an academic and teaching department, Physics. The physics department as a whole was awarded grade 5A in the 2001 Research Assessment Exercises[8] (RAE) carried out by the UK government, with the international excellence of research in Astronomy and Particle Physics specifically highlighted. The department's research in Space Science and Astrophysics was rated as number one in Europe and fourth in the world by Thomson Reuters from its Essential Science Indicators (1998–2008).[9]

High Performance Computing

The ICC's highest resolution simulations of the evolution of the Universe are performed on the Cosmology Machine (COSMA). Its latest upgrade, COSMA-5, was installed in October 2012,[10] as a hub of the UK national distributed facility DIRAC 2. COSMA-5 includes 6720 2.6 GHz Intel Sandy Bridge CPU cores, 53,760 GByte of RAM, and 2.4PByte of data storage; it is one of the most powerful supercomputers in the world.[5] The ICC acts as one of the two main nodes of the international Virgo Consortium for cosmological supercomputer simulations.

Visualisations of cosmological simulations

A founding goal of the ICC is to "stimulate young people to aspire to be the scientists of tomorrow".[11][12] A full-time outreach officer is employed to develop teaching materials that draw upon current research and coordinate a programme of activities in schools across the North East of England.

The ICC's 3D short movie "Cosmic Origins", which combines sequences of real astronomical data and supercomputer simulations,[13] won first prize for best stereoscopic movie at Stereoscopic Displays and Applications XXI.[14][15] The movie, and its sequel "Cosmic Origins 2" provided the core entertainment of a touring public exhibition that visited the Royal Society’s Summer Science Exhibitions 2009, 2010 and 2013, See Further 2010, the British Science Festival 2013, and Thailand's National Science and Technology Fair 2013.[16]

References

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External links

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