Simulation of Neutron Rich Matter Using the MDGRAPE-2
For large scale molecular dynamics simulations, IU provides four MDGRAPE-2 boards and booster cards, installed in four Pentium III PCs. The MDGRAPE-2 is a special purpose computer for the extremely fast calculation of classical two-body interactions. Each board, with its accompanying booster card, is rated at 128 GFlops. Users access the MDGRAPE-2 via calls to special Fortran or C libraries provided with the board. Indiana University will be making 4 MD-GRAPE-2 boards available as TeraGrid computing resources in January 2006.
Nuclear physicists at IU use the MDGRAPE-2's for simulations of a state of nuclear matter (neutrons and protons) known as "nuclear pasta". Nuclear pasta is believed to form during the collapse stage of Type II supernovas, and to exist in the crusts of neutron stars. A simple classical MD model is used to study its structure, and the transport properties of neutrinos through it. Simulations which would take literally years on a general purpose computer can be done in a matter of weeks on the MDGRAPE-2's.
