| NSF Org: |
OAC Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (OAC) |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | May 16, 2017 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | May 16, 2017 |
| Award Number: | 1713782 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Edward Walker
edwalker@nsf.gov (703)292-4863 OAC Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (OAC) CSE Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering |
| Start Date: | June 1, 2017 |
| End Date: | May 31, 2019 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $20,000.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $20,000.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
21 N PARK ST STE 6301 MADISON WI US 53715-1218 (608)262-3822 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
475 N Charter St Madison WI US 53706-1507 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | Leadership-Class Computing |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): | |
| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.070 |
ABSTRACT
Astrophysics is at the threshold of a new data-rich and simulation-rich era in star-formation studies. The question of how stars form is fascinating in itself and has a great impact on several other areas of astrophysics. There is a general consensus that a predominant amount of star formation in our Galaxy takes place in molecular clouds, and specifically in giant molecular clouds (GMC). Consequently, NASA has made multi-million dollar investments in instruments such as HAWC+ on the SOFIA airborne observatory with the specific goal of understanding the turbulent nature of star forming clouds. This project on Blue Waters will use the petascale capabilities of the system to validate theories of star formation by simulating the same processes the NASA's instruments are currently measuring.
This project will carry out simulations on Blue Waters that integrate the ions and the neutrals to reproduce the turbulent, partially ionized gas in which stars form. Since neutral gas does not couple to the magnetic field, but ionized gas do, the project has built frontline simulation capabilities for simulating two-fluid plasmas. Simultaneously, the project has built theoretical and numerical analysis tools that will enable cross-comparison of simulations with observations. This cross-comparison provides important verification of theories of star formation. Further diagnostics that emerge from the simulations will also be used to motivate more detailed observations. In this fashion, Blue Waters will enable theory, computation and detailed observations to support one another. In addition, the project intends to combine education in computational astrophysics with code releases of their simulation tools to the greater astrophysics community.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
The award helped to understand the challenging problems of magnetic field generation in the partially ionized interstellar plasmas as well as the problem of magnetic field study of interstellar magnetic fields. The study is important for our understanding of how interstellar media has been magnetized at the early stages of Universe as well as how its magnetization is being changed in the presence of present day turbulent motions in molecular clouds and in cold neutral medium within spiral galaxes. The study is also important in terms of magnetic field generation in the shock precursors. The latter effect affects the range of energies that can be accelerated by the shocks in the interstellar medium. As for the magnetic field studies, a new technique to study magnetic field with the velocity gradient has been further developed. This technique allows to use spectroscopic data in order to find the properties of magnetic field. The maps of magnetization of the high latitude atomic hydrogen layer in our Milky Way galaxy have been obtained. Within this grant the numerical simulations were performed that supported the technique.
A student has been trained during the tenure of this grant and an important outreach work has been done. In particular, talks were given a Madison schools.
Last Modified: 08/26/2019
Modified by: Alexandre Lazarian
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