The University of Chicago’s Flash Center for Computational Science has released a new version of supercomputer code, called Flash 4-alpha. Based on previous software for simulating exploding stars, this is the first version of the Flash code that has extensive capabilities for simulating high-energy density physics experiments. The US Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration Advanced Simulation and Computing Program has funded the addition of the new capabilities to this software, which will help scientists at universities across America better understand the fundamental properties of matter at high densities and high temperatures.
‘The enhanced Flash code is an open toolset for designing and analysing experiments that address questions about the nature of planetary interiors, the creation of elements via nuclear processes, and how matter behaves in violent shocks and other extreme conditions,’ said Don Lamb, Flash Center director and the Robert A. Millikan Distinguished Service Professor in Astronomy & Astrophysics.
The code will support academic HEDP research at a variety of laboratories, including major facilities such as the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, the Z machine at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico and the Omega Laser Facility at the University of Rochester, USA. The new software is a collaboration between the Center, the Computation Institute and Argonne National Laboratory. DOE funding for the initiative is through the Argonne Institute for Computing in Science.
