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The Daily OrangeCatching waves: New SU super computer allows for black hole, gravity research
By Kasey Panetta
Posted: 2/18/08, 10:28 PM EST Section: News
A new supercomputer being built by professors at Syracuse University's Department of Physics may help researchers detect gravitational waves created by the collision of black holes.
The computer, called SUGAR, short for Syracuse University Gravitation and Relativity Cluster, will be used to interpret data sent by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO). LIGO is a project funded by the National Science Foundation to search for gravitational waves.
Peter Saulson, a professor of physics at SU, says the team will use SUGAR to understand the physics of whether or not gravitational waves exist.
"It will also let us explore the universe in a new way," he said. "Adding new tools to astronomy has been behind a huge number of the astronomical breakthroughs that have happened since 1945," Saulson said.
Duncan Brown, associate professor of physics at SU, explained a gravitational wave is what happens when there is a large black hole, with another hole going around it.
"That generates ripples of space time that propagate outward and carry energy away," he said. "And eventually they crash into each other."
Gravitational waves, unlike electromagnetic waves emitted by items such as cell phones, are incredibly difficult to detect because of their small sizes.
"Because these waves are so small, Brown said. "It's really hard to detect. You need massive black holes going round and round at the speed of light in order to detect them."
Gravity waves would be the best way to examine the Big Bang, said Saulson, who's been working with gravitational waves since 1981.
"The prospects for gravity waves are pretty dramatic," he said.
The computer itself is an impressive piece of machinery requiring the installation of two air conditioning units and additional power. It consists of 80 nodes and various screens that allow researches to log into the system.
"Each node has 2.4 gigahertz," Brown said. "The MacBook Pro probably has about two gigahertz, and each node is a bit faster than two of [the MacBook Pro] and has about four times the RAM."
The computer, called SUGAR, short for Syracuse University Gravitation and Relativity Cluster, will be used to interpret data sent by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO). LIGO is a project funded by the National Science Foundation to search for gravitational waves.
Peter Saulson, a professor of physics at SU, says the team will use SUGAR to understand the physics of whether or not gravitational waves exist.
"It will also let us explore the universe in a new way," he said. "Adding new tools to astronomy has been behind a huge number of the astronomical breakthroughs that have happened since 1945," Saulson said.
Duncan Brown, associate professor of physics at SU, explained a gravitational wave is what happens when there is a large black hole, with another hole going around it.
"That generates ripples of space time that propagate outward and carry energy away," he said. "And eventually they crash into each other."
Gravitational waves, unlike electromagnetic waves emitted by items such as cell phones, are incredibly difficult to detect because of their small sizes.
"Because these waves are so small, Brown said. "It's really hard to detect. You need massive black holes going round and round at the speed of light in order to detect them."
Gravity waves would be the best way to examine the Big Bang, said Saulson, who's been working with gravitational waves since 1981.
"The prospects for gravity waves are pretty dramatic," he said.
The computer itself is an impressive piece of machinery requiring the installation of two air conditioning units and additional power. It consists of 80 nodes and various screens that allow researches to log into the system.
"Each node has 2.4 gigahertz," Brown said. "The MacBook Pro probably has about two gigahertz, and each node is a bit faster than two of [the MacBook Pro] and has about four times the RAM."
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