The team reached this improved understanding after modeling a variety of particle behaviors at different energy levels, where behavior changes. The steps to unite all factors into an accurate model was made possible by the computing power of Frontier. Performing at exascale, Frontier is capable of more than a quintillion calculations per second.
Results revealed that a rare nucleus known as 30-neon has both round and deformed shapes that coexist. By performing millions of computations, the team learned how the “strong nuclear force,” which hold subatomic particles together, drives this deformation. The team developed new models of nuclear properties based on these results, which required the use of Frontier for their creation but can run on laptops to enable broad future studies.
“The new techniques we introduced are truly game changers, allowing us to accurately compute the structure and behavior of a deformed nucleus,” said Sun. “This lies on the frontier of nuclear science research.”
The DOE Office of Science Office of Nuclear Physics and Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research supported this research. Frontier is housed at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility, a DOE Office of Science user facility.
UT-Battelle manages ORNL for the DOE Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. The Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science. — Chris Driver
This Oak Ridge National Laboratory news article "Supercomputing illuminates detailed nuclear structure" was originally found on https://www.ornl.gov/news
