Dr. Filomena Nunes studies the origins of the universe. As stars burn, nuclear fusion creates elements. Conventional stars cannot create elements heavier than iron, yet such elements exist in nature. The National Academy of Science calls the question of how elements heavier than iron were formed one of the top 11 unanswered questions in physics.
Scientists at Michigan State University’s National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory use the accelerator to try to reproduce nuclei from iron to uranium. Dr. Nunes calls herself a “reaction theorist.” She doesn’t actually run the experiments, but she studies the data gathered by others.
Dr. Nunes uses MSU’s High Performance Computing Center (HPCC) to analyze the massive amounts of data generated. Previously she used a desktop computer to do the analysis, but she found that her needs quickly outstripped the capacity of even today’s PCs. She says “The HPCC at MSU really has allowed us to go far beyond what we formerly could do.”
The HPCC enables research on a much greater scale than before. Dr. Nunes says “We used to assume that a projectile was one component. Now we’re able to assume 10. We want to reach 100.” Her work makes use of all 128 processors in the HPCC’s cluster computer. “Give me a cluster that is all mine” she jokes.
The research is paying off in the form of peer-reviewed journal articles. “We would not be able to write these articles and get them published without the HPCC,” says Dr. Nunes.
For more information about the research the Dr. Nunes and her colleagues undertake, please visit http://www.nscl.msu.edu/future/isf/download.html.
