Domain-decomposed preconditionings for transport operators

The performance was tested of five different interface preconditionings for domain decomposed convection diffusion problems, including a novel one known as the spectral probe, while varying mesh parameters, Reynolds number, ratio of subdomain diffusion coefficients, and domain aspect ratio. The preconditioners are representative of the range of practically computable possibilities that have appeared in the domain decomposition literature for the treatment of nonoverlapping subdomains. It is shown that through a large number of numerical examples that no single preconditioner can be considered uniformly superior or uniformly inferior to the rest, but that knowledge of particulars, including the shape and strength of the convection, is important in selecting among them in a given problem

Finding apparent horizons and other two-surfaces of constant expansion

Apparent horizons are structures of spacelike hypersurfaces that can be determined locally in time. Closed surfaces of constant expansion (CE surfaces) are a generalisation of apparent horizons. I present an efficient method for locating CE surfaces. This method uses an explicit representation of the surface, allowing for arbitrary resolutions and, in principle, shapes. The CE surface equation is then solved as a nonlinear elliptic equation. It is reasonable to assume that CE surfaces foliate a spacelike hypersurface outside of some interior region, thus defining an invariant (but still slicing-dependent) radial coordinate. This can be used to determine gauge modes and to compare time evolutions with different gauge conditions. CE surfaces also provide an efficient way to find new apparent horizons as they appear e.g. in binary black hole simulations.Comment: 21 pages, 8 figures; two references adde

R.A.Fisher, design theory, and the Indian connection

Design Theory, a branch of mathematics, was born out of the experimental statistics research of the population geneticist R. A. Fisher and of Indian mathematical statisticians in the 1930s. The field combines elements of combinatorics, finite projective geometries, Latin squares, and a variety of further mathematical structures, brought together in surprising ways. This essay will present these structures and ideas as well as how the field came together, in itself an interesting story.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figure

Polariton propagation in weak confinement quantum wells

Exciton-polariton propagation in a quantum well, under centre-of-mass quantization, is computed by a variational self-consistent microscopic theory. The Wannier exciton envelope functions basis set is given by the simple analytical model of ref. [1], based on pure states of the centre-of-mass wave vector, free from fitting parameters and "ad hoc" (the so called additional boundary conditions-ABCs) assumptions. In the present paper, the former analytical model is implemented in order to reproduce the centre-of-mass quantization in a large range of quantum well thicknesses (5a_B < L < inf.). The role of the dynamical transition layer at the well/barrier interfaces is discussed at variance of the classical Pekar's dead-layer and ABCs. The Wannier exciton eigenstates are computed, and compared with various theoretical models with different degrees of accuracy. Exciton-polariton transmission spectra in large quantum wells (L>> a_B) are computed and compared with experimental results of Schneider et al.\cite{Schneider} in high quality GaAs samples. The sound agreement between theory and experiment allows to unambiguously assign the exciton-polariton dips of the transmission spectrum to the pure states of the Wannier exciton center-of-mass quantization.Comment: 15 pages, 15 figures; will appear in Phys.Rev.

Computational Nuclear Physics and Post Hartree-Fock Methods

We present a computational approach to infinite nuclear matter employing Hartree-Fock theory, many-body perturbation theory and coupled cluster theory. These lectures are closely linked with those of chapters 9, 10 and 11 and serve as input for the correlation functions employed in Monte Carlo calculations in chapter 9, the in-medium similarity renormalization group theory of dense fermionic systems of chapter 10 and the Green's function approach in chapter 11. We provide extensive code examples and benchmark calculations, allowing thereby an eventual reader to start writing her/his own codes. We start with an object-oriented serial code and end with discussions on strategies for porting the code to present and planned high-performance computing facilities.Comment: 82 pages, to appear in Lecture Notes in Physics (Springer), "An advanced course in computational nuclear physics: Bridging the scales from quarks to neutron stars", M. Hjorth-Jensen, M. P. Lombardo, U. van Kolck, Editor

Kepler eclipsing binary stars. VII. the catalogue of eclipsing binaries found in the entire Kepler data set

The primary Kepler Mission provided nearly continuous monitoring of ~200,000 objects with unprecedented photometric precision. We present the final catalog of eclipsing binary systems within the 105 deg2 Kepler field of view. This release incorporates the full extent of the data from the primary mission (Q0-Q17 Data Release). As a result, new systems have been added, additional false positives have been removed, ephemerides and principal parameters have been recomputed, classifications have been revised to rely on analytical models, and eclipse timing variations have been computed for each system. We identify several classes of systems including those that exhibit tertiary eclipse events, systems that show clear evidence of additional bodies, heartbeat systems, systems with changing eclipse depths, and systems exhibiting only one eclipse event over the duration of the mission. We have updated the period and galactic latitude distribution diagrams and included a catalog completeness evaluation. The total number of identified eclipsing and ellipsoidal binary systems in the Kepler field of view has increased to 2878, 1.3% of all observed Kepler targets

Scalability of Incompressible Flow Computations on Multi-GPU Clusters Using Dual-Level and Tri-Level Parallelism

High performance computing using graphics processing units (GPUs) is gaining popularity in the scientific computing field, with many large compute clusters being augmented with multiple GPUs in each node. We investigate hybrid tri-level (MPI-OpenMP-CUDA) parallel implementations to explore the efficiency and scalability of incompressible flow computations on GPU clusters up to 128 GPUS. This work details some of the unique issues faced when merging fine-grain parallelism on the GPU using CUDA with coarse-grain parallelism using OpenMP for intra-node and MPI for inter-node communication. Comparisons between the tri-level MPI-OpenMP-CUDA and dual-level MPI-CUDA implementations are shown using computationally large computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. Our results demonstrate that a tri-level parallel implementation does not provide a significant advantage in performance over the dual-level implementation, however further research is needed to justify our conclusion for a cluster with a high GPU per node density or when using software that can utilize OpenMP’s fine-grain parallelism more effectively

Sis1 potentiates the stress response to protein aggregation and elevated temperature

Cells adapt to conditions that compromise protein conformational stability by activating various stress response pathways, but the mechanisms used in sensing misfolded proteins remain unclear. Moreover, aggregates of disease proteins often fail to induce a productive stress response. Here, using a yeast model of polyQ protein aggregation, we identified Sis1, an essential Hsp40 co-chaperone of Hsp70, as a critical sensor of proteotoxic stress. At elevated levels, Sis1 prevented the formation of dense polyQ inclusions and directed soluble polyQ oligomers towards the formation of permeable condensates. Hsp70 accumulated in a liquid-like state within this polyQ meshwork, resulting in a potent activation of the HSF1 dependent stress response. Sis1, and the homologous DnaJB6 in mammalian cells, also regulated the magnitude of the cellular heat stress response, suggesting a general role in sensing protein misfolding. Sis1/DnaJB6 functions as a limiting regulator to enable a dynamic stress response and avoid hypersensitivity to environmental changes. Identifying factors that enable cells to induce a potent stress response to amyloid-like aggregation can provide further insight into the mechanism of stress regulation. Here, the authors express polyglutamine-expanded Huntingtin as a model disease protein in yeast cells and perform a genetic screen for chaperone factors that allow yeast cells to activate a potent stress response. They identify Sis1, an essential Hsp40 co-chaperone of Hsp70, as a critical sensor of proteotoxic stress and further show that both Sis1 and its mammalian homolog DnaJB6 regulate the magnitude of the cellular heat stress response, indicating that this mechanism is conserved.FRAP experiments were performed at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry Imaging Core Facility

The effect of 12C + 12C rate uncertainties on the evolution and nucleosynthesis of massive stars

[Shortened] The 12C + 12C fusion reaction has been the subject of considerable experimental efforts to constrain uncertainties at temperatures relevant for stellar nucleosynthesis. In order to investigate the effect of an enhanced carbon burning rate on massive star structure and nucleosynthesis, new stellar evolution models and their yields are presented exploring the impact of three different 12C + 12C reaction rates. Non-rotating stellar models were generated using the Geneva Stellar Evolution Code and were later post-processed with the NuGrid Multi-zone Post-Processing Network tool. The enhanced rate causes core carbon burning to be ignited more promptly and at lower temperature. This reduces the neutrino losses, which increases the core carbon burning lifetime. An increased carbon burning rate also increases the upper initial mass limit for which a star exhibits a convective carbon core. Carbon shell burning is also affected, with fewer convective-shell episodes and convection zones that tend to be larger in mass. Consequently, the chance of an overlap between the ashes of carbon core burning and the following carbon shell convection zones is increased, which can cause a portion of the ashes of carbon core burning to be included in the carbon shell. Therefore, during the supernova explosion, the ejecta will be enriched by s-process nuclides synthesized from the carbon core s process. The yields were used to estimate the weak s-process component in order to compare with the solar system abundance distribution. The enhanced rate models were found to produce a significant proportion of Kr, Sr, Y, Zr, Mo, Ru, Pd and Cd in the weak component, which is primarily the signature of the carbon-core s process. Consequently, it is shown that the production of isotopes in the Kr-Sr region can be used to constrain the 12C + 12C rate using the current branching ratio for a- and p-exit channels.Comment: The paper contains 17 figures and 7 tables. Table 7 will be published in full online onl