Listen to every rhythm from the universe with supercomputers

Scientists hope that a supercomputer created by Syracuse University's physics department could help them know the sound of a black hole in space. The SUGAR supercomputer (the SU Gravitational and Relativity Cluster) will soon receive a range of data from the California Institute of Technology. Data sources were collected for more than a year at Lade-LIGO Wave-Gravity Observation Station.

Associate Professor of Physics Duncan Brown, who is also a member of the Syracuse University's Attractive Wave Group, is assembling SUGAR supercomputers. The Faculty of this research group is also a member of the LIGO Scientific Cooperation Project (LSC). This is also a global initiative to discover gravitational waves. Brown worked on the LIGO project at Caltech before coming to Syracuse University last August.

Kepler's meteor piece
(Photo: Dong Nai Department of Science and Technology)

Gravitational waves are produced by distant events in the cosmos such as the collision of cosmic black holes or supernova explosions. The waves emit in the universe at the speed of light. While Albert Einstein predicted the existence of these waves in 1916 in his general theory of relativity, it took decades to develop the technology to find them. The construction of LIGO detectors in Hanford, Wash., And Livingston, Lasvegas was completed in 2005. Scientists have recently summarized a two-year science race about detectors. They are also looking for data for these waves. LSC scientists will analyze these data while the sensitivity of the detectors is being finalized. Detectors are also made in France, Germany, Italy, and Japan.

Before scientists can extract the sound of a black hole, they must find out how a black hole sounds. That's exactly what Einstein's theory is about. Working with colleagues from the Simulating eXtreme Spacetimes project (SXS) - Brown will use SUGAR supercomputers and Einstein's equations to create models of gravitational waves from the collision of black holes. cylinder. SXS is a joint project with Caltech and Cornell University.

Black holes are large gravitational fields in the universe due to the explosions of giant stars. Because black holes absorb light, they cannot be studied with telescopes or devices based on light waves. However, scientists believe they can learn about black holes by listening to gravitational waves.

According to Brown, finding gravitational waves is like listening to the universe . Different types of events create different wave patterns. According to him they will try to extract a wave pattern, a special kind of sound that fits well with all the noises in LIGO's data.

This requires a lot of computer power and data storage capabilities to analyze data on samples of gravitational waves that Duncan and his colleagues have created.SUGAR is a compilation of 80 computers, capable of 320 CPUs and random access memory memory of 640 billion computers . SUGAR also has a capacity of 96 one trillion bytes to store LIGO data.

It also needs a high-speed fiber optic system to transmit data between Caltech and SU. To achieve this, SU's Information Technology and Services cooperated with NYSERNet to create a special path for LIGO data on high-speed fiber optic systems passing through the US. The one-million-byte path starts from the Physical Building and traverses SU's network to the machine's office and then to the fiber system in downtown Syracuse where the university shares a system with NYSERNet. From there the path connects to NYSERNet's fiber system and goes to New York City. In New York City, the link connects to the high-speed Internet system and passes through the countryside and finally ends at the computer room at Caltech.

Both supercomputers and high-speed systems are expected to be completed and start operating at the end of February. Once the data is transferred to SU from Caltech, Brown and his colleagues in LSC will start listening to the ' cosmic rhythm '. According to Brown, gravitational waves can help them know what is in the universe and they will not consider Einstein's theory in this way.

LIGO is funded by the National Science Foundation and is run by Caltech and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.