TITLE:

COMPUTING THE NUCLEUS OF THE ATOM FROM FIRST PRINCIPLES

DATE:

Friday, March 13th, 2009

TIME:

3:30 PM

LOCATION:

GMCS 214

SPEAKER:

James P. Vary, Professor of Physics, Iowa State University

ABSTRACT:

Nuclear physicists are harnessing massively parallel computers to solve the long-standing problem of the structure of the atomic nucleus. The problem is computationally “hard” since it requires one to solve quantum mechanics for a system with a large number of variables using realistic interactions that are very strong. Also, the results must be accurate over several orders of magnitude of energy. Phenomena on different scales are coupled to the degree that approximations such as perturbation theory are not valid. Hence, the current emphasis is to obtain exact solutions either directly or close enough that extrapolation is possible. I will provide an overview of some of the recently developed “ab initio” methods that range from solving large numbers of coupled differential equations to large sparse matrix diagonalization. I will also outline challenges that lie ahead requiring next generation computers and further algorithm improvements.

HOST:

Calvin Johnson

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