Computational Methods in High Energy Density Plasmas

Organizing Committee | Activities | Scientific Overview

Participation | Application | Contact Us

Christina Back (General Atomics)
Andrew Christlieb (Michigan State University, Mathematics)
Jill Dahlburg (United States Naval Research Laboratory)
Michael Desjarlais (Sandia National Laboratories)
Frank Graziani (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory)
Leslie Greengard (New York University)
David Levermore (University of Maryland, Department of Mathematics)
Warren Mori (University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Physics/Engineering)
Michael Murillo (Los Alamos National Laboratory)

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• Orientation Day (by invitation only). March 12, 2012.
• Computational Methods in High Energy Density Plasmas: Tutorials. March 13 - 16, 2012.
• Workshop I: Computational Challenges in Hot Dense Plasmas. March 26 - 30, 2012.
• Workshop II: Computational Challenges in Magnetized Plasma. April 16 - 20, 2012.
• Workshop III: Mathematical and Computer Science Approaches to High Energy Density Physics. May 7 - 11, 2012.
• Workshop IV: Computational Challenges in Warm Dense Matter. May 21 - 25, 2012.
• Culminating Workshop at Lake Arrowhead (by invitation only). June 10 - 15, 2012.

There will be an active program of research activities, seminars and workshops throughout the March 12 - June 15, 2012 period and core participants will be in residence at IPAM continuously for these fourteen weeks. The program will open with tutorials, and will be punctuated by four major workshops and a culminating workshop at UCLA’s Lake Arrowhead Conference Center. Several distinguished senior researchers will be in residence for the entire period. Between the workshops there will be a program of activities involving the long-term and short-term participants, as well as visitors.

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High energy density physics (HEDP) is a rapidly growing field. HEDP conditions are typically from Mbar to tens of Gbar pressures and temperatures ranging from eV to GeV. These are the conditions seen in the interiors of Jovian planets, the core of the sun, Tokamaks and matter in the early stages of the universe. With the advent of experimental platforms like the Linear Coherent Light Source (LCLS), the National Ignition Facility (NIF), pulse power and the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), the scientific community is beginning to obtain high quality data of matter at extreme conditions. In addition, new high performance computing hardware is providing exciting new massively parallel platforms that enable higher fidelity simulations.

This long program will focus on the computational approaches to the modeling of these extreme states of matter. It will address the scientific challenges facing the computational HEDP community and discuss the successes and failures of various methods. Algorithmic approaches such as Particle-In-Cell, Molecular Dynamics, Wave packet Molecular Dynamics and Wigner Trajectories will be compared and contrasted. The computer science challenges of writing and running massively parallel simulations is critical to the success of being able to simulate the various HEDP phenomena. Experimental data will play a key role in the long program as the scientific driver for the computational approaches, as well as a way of providing code validation.

Technical goals of the program
• Identify key application drivers in computational HEDP
• Assess the state of the art with regards to computational HEDP
• Identify the grand challenges facing the field over the next 5-10 years
• Identify key experimental data needs

Social goals of the program
• Open up lines of communications between researchers in computational HEDP
• Establish new collaborations
• Foster cross fertilization between different fields

The long program will establish an interdisciplinary forum for researchers in HEDP. In particular, the long program will provide a channel by which experts in the diverse applications disciplines meet and openly discuss the merits and weaknesses of their approaches. In order for the HEDP community to meet the challenges facing it, it is important that experimentalists, mathematicians, computer scientists, computational chemists and engineers be part of the dialogue taking place in the long program. Providing a forum where HEDP challenges are communicated to a wide community will set up a synergistic relationship between disciplines.

Full and partial support for long-term participants is available, and those interested are encouraged to fill out an online application at the bottom of this page. Support for individual workshops will also be available, and may be applied for through the online application for each workshop. We are especially interested in applicants who are interested in becoming core participants and participating in the entire program (March 12 - June 15, 2012), but give consideration to applications for shorter periods. Funding for participants is available at all academic levels, though recent PhD's, graduate students, and researchers in the early stages of their career are especially encouraged to apply.

Enhancing the careers of women and minority mathematicians and scientists is an important component of IPAM's mission and we welcome their applications.

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Application

We are no longer accepting applications for financial support and we are no longer accepting online registration. You may still register at the door on the first day of the workshop.

Contact Us:

Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics (IPAM)
Attn: PL2012
460 Portola Plaza
Los Angeles CA 90095-7121
Phone: 310 825-4755
Fax: 310 825-4756
Email:
Website: http://www.ipam.ucla.edu/programs/pl2012/

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