next article | contents

Sussex in supercomputer success

---

Sussex physicists and astronomers will soon be plugged into one of the latest generation of supercomputers, thanks to a grant of half a million pounds from the HEFCE to the newly-formed UK Cosmology Supercomputing Consortium. The grant was used to buy one of the new Silicon Graphics Origin 2000 supercomputers - the first in Europe - which has just been delivered to its new home in Cambridge. The Sussex members of the project are Peter Thomas, Mark Hindmarsh and Ed Copeland, members of the Astronomy Centre and the Centre for Theoretical Physics. The consortium is headed by Professor Stephen Hawking.

The other major sites, besides Sussex, are at Durham and Imperial College; however, Sussex is the only site with research interests spanning those of the whole consortium - in keeping with its interdisciplinary traditions.

The supercomputer will be used to simulate the evolution of the Universe, following billions of years of its history from the earliest moments of the Big Bang to the formation of galaxies. The results will shed light on the major problem of modern cosmology: how galaxies formed. The solution lies in the mysterious physics of the earliest moments of the Big Bang, but it will take the supercomputer and a unique collaboration between particle physicists and astronomers to be able to pin down the final answer. Which is almost certainly not 42.

next article | contents

Friday February 28th 1997