Studying the origins of the universe with a supercomputer

Green meadows, tree-lined avenues, the feeling of entering a dimension separate from the world. In the’Durham Universitynear Newcastle, in northern England, leads advanced research on the origins of the universe using supercomputer. A type of exclusively intellectual speculation, without immediate industrial implications, “but the kind of research capable of sowing seeds for the future”Explains Professor Azadeh Fattahi, associate of computational cosmology, as she accompanies us walking through the institute’s avenues.

The university’s brown brick buildings conceal a secret: Behind heavy metal doors blocked by intricate passcodes, the low, steady sound of cooling fans and ICs emanating from the CosMa supercomputer. The name stands for Cosmology Machine, and since 2001 it has been trying to reconstruct the history of the universe starting from its origins – that Big Bang from which it all started but which remains a mystery.

“How is it possible that from the initial homogeneity we have come to such a complex world?” is one of the questions, perhaps the main one, which Durham’s models try to answer. And for this numerical simulations are needed. “At first computer efforts were directed silo to dark matter“says Fattahi a Wired. “Full hydrodynamic simulations are possible today, including all physics related to galaxy formation, star formation process, supernova explosion, black hole activity and beyond.“. The model is called Flamingo, and as the doctor explains, using bird names is a kind of tradition.