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DEEP DIVE: Exascale Computing Illuminates Detailed Structure of Atomic Nuclei

by Chris Driver Using a novel computational modeling technique to test theoretical quantum physics, a team of researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have discovered properties of the atomic nucleus at new levels of detail — illuminating behavior of its protons and neutrons amid fundamental forces…
Katie BetheaKatie BetheaFebruary 26, 20257 min

Reining in Runaway Electrons

At temperatures hotter than the sun, even a small disruption can interfere with a fusion reaction. Scientists planning for the operations of ITER, an international fusion plant now under assembly, needed to solve the problem of runaway electrons, negatively charged particles in the soup of matter in the plasma within…
Matt LakinMatt LakinJanuary 7, 20255 min
neck rupture in nuclear fission

Surprising Details in a More Precise Description of Fission

Nuclear fission — when the nucleus of an atom splits in two, releasing energy — may seem like a process that is fully understood. First discovered in 1939 and thoroughly studied ever since, fission is a constant factor in modern life, used in everything from nuclear medicine to power-generating nuclear…
Coury TurczynCoury TurczynOctober 23, 20248 min
The Frontier supercomputer simulated magnetic responses inside calcium-48, depicted by red and blue spheres. Insights into the nucleus’s fundamental forces could shed light on supernova dynamics.

Frontier Simulations Provide New Insights Into Calcium-48’s Controversial Nuclear Magnetic Excitation

The nucleus of an atom is almost inconceivably small, and most people have little idea just how much of the world around them is shaped by the strong nuclear forces that hold those tiny subatomic particles together. Nuclear physicists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory recently used…
Jeremy RumseyJeremy RumseySeptember 3, 20248 min
Steven Hamilton ORNL

ExaSMR Nominated for 2023 ACM Gordon Bell Prize

The Exascale Small Modular Reactor effort, or ExaSMR, is a software stack developed over seven years under the Department of Energy’s Exascale Computing Project to produce the highest-resolution simulations of nuclear reactor systems to date. Now, ExaSMR has been nominated for a 2023 Gordon Bell Prize by the Association for Computing Machinery…
Coury TurczynCoury TurczynSeptember 11, 20235 min
oxygen-28

Oxygen-28 Unbound

Isotopes — atoms of a particular element that have different numbers of neutrons — can be used for a variety of tasks, from tracking climate change to conducting medical research. Investigating rare isotopes, which have extreme neutron-to-proton imbalances and are often created in accelerator facilities, provides scientists with opportunities to…
Coury TurczynCoury TurczynAugust 30, 20238 min
Exascale new frontier OLCF Banner

Exascale’s New Frontier: ExaSMR

PI: Steven Hamilton, Oak Ridge National Laboratory In 2016, the US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Exascale Computing Project (ECP) set out to develop advanced software for the arrival of exascale-class supercomputers capable of a quintillion (10¹⁸) or more calculations per second. That meant rethinking, reinventing, and optimizing dozens of scientific…
Coury TurczynCoury TurczynAugust 23, 20235 min
Steven Hamilton, ORNL

Predicting the Future of Fission Power

As renewable sources of energy such as wind and sun power are being increasingly added to the country’s electrical grid, old-fashioned nuclear energy is also being primed for a resurgence. For the past 20 years, fission reactors have produced a nearly unchanging portion of the nation’s electricity: around 20%. But…
Coury TurczynCoury TurczynMay 22, 20237 min

Summit, neutrons crack code to uranium compound’s signature vibes

Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers used the nation’s fastest supercomputer to map the molecular vibrations of an important but little-studied uranium compound produced during the nuclear fuel cycle for results that could lead to a cleaner, safer world. The study by researchers from ORNL, Savannah River National Laboratory and the…
Matt LakinMatt LakinMay 5, 20226 min
Frontier data center image

Forging Ahead with Frontier: Ready to Crush Science

Computational users at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF) are running scientific codes on Frontier’s architecture in the form of a powerful test system at the OLCF called Crusher. Frontier, an HPE Cray EX supercomputer capable of 1018 calculations per second—or 10 with 18 zeroes—was installed in late 2021 and is…
Rachel McDowellRachel McDowellMarch 28, 20228 min
FRIB building

The Magic is Gone for Certain Atomic Nuclei

Using the power of the Summit supercomputer, researchers at the US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, have verified the results of a groundbreaking experiment to precisely measure the charge radii of neutron-rich potassium isotopes. The findings challenge current nuclear theory…
Coury TurczynCoury TurczynApril 6, 20217 min

Solving A Beta Decay Puzzle

OAK RIDGE, Tenn., March 11, 2019—An international collaboration including scientists at the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) solved a 50-year-old puzzle that explains why beta decays of atomic nuclei are slower than what is expected based on the beta decays of free neutrons. The findings, published…
Jonathan HinesJonathan HinesMarch 12, 20196 min

Award Finalists Demonstrate Improved QCD Code for Supercomputing

This article is part of a series covering the finalists for the 2018 Gordon Bell Prize that used the Summit supercomputer. The prize winner will be announced at SC18 in November in Dallas. There is a fine line between particle physics and nuclear physics at which the subatomic particles quarks and…
Katie Elyce JonesKatie Elyce JonesNovember 5, 20189 min
particle physics, nuclear physics, supercomputing

With Supercomputing Power and an Unconventional Strategy, Scientists Solve a Next-Generation Physics Problem

Using the Titan supercomputer at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF), a team of researchers has calculated a fundamental property of protons and neutrons, known as the nucleon axial coupling, with groundbreaking precision. Led by André Walker-Loud of the US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the…
Katie Elyce JonesKatie Elyce JonesMay 30, 20189 min
An image of a deuteron, the bound state of a proton and a neutron

Another First for Quantum

The beginnings of quantum computing bring about many firsts. In 2010 a team led by B. P. Lanyon simulated a hydrogen molecule, H2, on a quantum system for the first time. Last fall research scientists at IBM performed the first quantum calculations of molecules beyond hydrogen and helium. Now a…
Rachel McDowellRachel McDowellMay 23, 20186 min