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At least 487 records · Page 27

Parallel database search and prime factorization with magnonic holographic memory devices

In this work, we describe the capabilities of Magnonic Holographic Memory (MHM) for parallel database search and prime factorization. MHM is a type of holographic device, which utilizes spin waves for data transfer and processing. Its operation is based on the correlation between the phases and the amplitudes of the input spin waves and the output inductive voltage. The input of MHM is provided by the phased array of spin wave generating elements allowing the producing of phase patterns of an arbitrary form. The latter makes it possible to code logic states into the phases of propagating waves and exploit wave superposition for parallel data processing. We present the results of numerical modeling illustrating parallel database search and prime factorization. The results of numerical simulations on the database search are in agreement with the available experimental data. The use of classical wave interference may results in a significant speedup over the conventional digital logic circuits in special task data processing (e.g., √n in database search). Potentially, magnonic holographic devices can be implemented as complementary logic units to digital processors. Physical limitations and technological constrains of the spin wave approach are also discussed.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Pushing configuration-interaction to the limit: Towards massively parallel MCSCF calculations

A new large-scale parallel multiconfigurational self-consistent field (MCSCF) implementation in the open-source NWChem computational chemistry code is presented. The generalized active space approach is used to partition large configuration interaction (CI) vectors and generate a sufficient number of batches that can be distributed to the available cores. Massively parallel CI calculations with large active spaces can be performed. The new parallel MCSCF implementation is tested for the chromium trimer and for an active space of 20 electrons in 20 orbitals, which can now routinely be performed. Unprecedented CI calculations with an active space of 22 electrons in 22 orbitals for the pentacene systems were performed and a single CI iteration calculation with an active space of 24 electrons in 24 orbitals for the chromium tetramer was possible. In conclusion, the chromium tetramer corresponds to a CI expansion of one trillion Slater determinants (914 058 513 424) and is the largest conventional CI calculation attempted up to date.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Laser-produced plasmas as drivers of laboratory collisionless quasi-parallel shocks

The creation of a repeatable collisionless quasi-parallel shock in the laboratory would provide a valuable platform for experimental studies of space and astrophysical shocks. However, conducting such an experiment presents substantial challenges. Scaling the results of hybrid simulations of quasi-parallel shock formation to the laboratory highlights the experimentally demanding combination of dense, fast, and magnetized background and driver plasmas required. One possible driver for such experiments is high-energy laser-produced plasmas (LPPs). Preliminary experiments at the University of California, Los Angeles, have explored LPPs as drivers of quasi-parallel shocks by combining the Phoenix Laser Laboratory [Niemann et al., J. Instrum. 7, P03010 (2012)] with a large plasma device [Gekelman et al., Rev. Sci. Instrum. 87, 025105 (2016)]. Beam instabilities and waves characteristic of the early stages of shock formation are observed, but spatial dispersion of the laser-produced plasma prematurely terminates the process. This result is illustrated by experimental measurements and Monte Carlo calculations of LPP density dispersion. The experimentally validated Monte Carlo model is then applied to evaluate several possible approaches to mitigating LPP dispersion in future experiments.

Heuer, P. V. (ORCID:0000000150506606)↗

A parallel, distributed memory implementation of the adaptive sampling configuration interaction method

The many-body simulation of quantum systems is an active field of research that involves several different methods targeting various computing platforms. Many methods commonly employed, particularly coupled cluster methods, have been adapted to leverage the latest advances in modern high-performance computing. Selected configuration interaction (sCI) methods have seen extensive usage and development in recent years. However, the development of sCI methods targeting massively parallel resources has been explored only in a few research works. Here, we present a parallel, distributed memory implementation of the adaptive sampling configuration interaction approach (ASCI) for sCI. In particular, we will address the key concerns pertaining to the parallelization of the determinant search and selection, Hamiltonian formation, and the variational eigenvalue calculation for the ASCI method. Load balancing in the search step is achieved through the application of memory-efficient determinant constraints originally developed for the ASCI-PT2 method. The presented benchmarks demonstrate near optimal speedup for ASCI calculations of Cr 2 (24e, 30o) with 10 6 , 10 7 , and 3 × 10 8 variational determinants on up to 16 384 CPUs. Importantly, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the largest variational ASCI calculation to date.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Design and performance of parallel-channel nanocryotrons in magnetic fields

We introduce a design modification to conventional geometry of the cryogenic three-terminal switch, the nanocryotron (nTron). The conventional geometry of nTrons is modified by including parallel current-carrying channels, an approach aimed at enhancing the device's performance in magnetic field environments. The common challenge in nTron technology is to maintain efficient operation under varying magnetic field conditions. Here, we show that the adaptation of parallel channel configurations leads to an enhanced gate signal sensitivity, an increase in operational gain, and a reduction in the impact of superconducting vortices on nTron operation within magnetic fields up to 1 T. Contrary to traditional designs that are constrained by their effective channel width, the parallel nanowire channels permits larger nTron cross sections, further bolstering the device's magnetic field resilience while improving electro-thermal recovery times due to reduced local inductance. This advancement in nTron design not only augments its functionality in magnetic fields but also broadens its applicability in technological environments, offering a simple design alternative to existing nTron devices.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Understanding cold electron impact on parallel-propagating whistler chorus waves via moment-based quasilinear theory

Earth's magnetosphere hosts a wide range of collisionless particle populations that interact through various wave-particle processes. Among these, cold electrons, with energies below 100 eV, often dominate the plasma density but remain poorly characterized due to measurement challenges such as spacecraft charging and photoelectron contamination. Understanding the contribution of these cold populations to wave–particle interaction is of significant interest. Recent kinetic simulations identified a secondary drift-driven instability, in which parallel-propagating whistler-mode chorus waves excite oblique electrostatic whistler waves near the resonance cone and Bernstein-mode turbulence. These secondary modes enable a new channel of energy transfer from the parallel-propagating whistler wave to the cold electrons. In this work, we develop a moment-based quasilinear theory of the secondary instabilities to quantify such energy exchange. Our results show that these secondary instabilities persist for a wide range of parameters and, in many cases, lead to nearly complete damping of the primary wave. Such secondary instability might limit the amplitude of parallel-propagating whistler waves in Earth's magnetosphere and might explain why high-amplitude oblique whistler or electron Bernstein waves are rarely observed simultaneously with high-amplitude field-aligned whistler waves in the inner magnetosphere.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

THE ROLE OF ERUPTING SIGMOID IN TRIGGERING A FLARE WITH PARALLEL AND LARGE-SCALE QUASI-CIRCULAR RIBBONS

In this paper, we present observations and analysis of an interesting sigmoid formation, eruption, and the associated flare that occurred on 2014 April 18 using multi-wavelength data sets. We discuss the possible role of the sigmoid eruption in triggering the flare, which consists of two different sets of ribbons: parallel ribbons and a large-scale quasi-circular ribbon. Several observational evidence and nonlinear force-free field extrapolation results show the existence of a large-scale fan-spine type magnetic configuration with a sigmoid lying under a section of the fan dome. The event can be explained with the following two phases. During the preflare phase, we observed the formation and appearance of the sigmoid via tether-cutting reconnection between the two sets of sheared fields under the fan dome. The second, main flare phase features the eruption of the sigmoid, the subsequent flare with parallel ribbons, and a quasi-circular ribbon. We propose the following multi-stage successive reconnection scenario for the main flare. First, tether-cutting reconnection is responsible for the formation and the eruption of the sigmoid structure. Second, the reconnection occurring in the wake of the erupting sigmoid produces the parallel flare ribbons on the both sides of the circular polarity inversion line. Third, the null-type reconnection higher in the corona, possibly triggered by the erupting sigmoid, leads to the formation of a large quasi-circular ribbon. For the first time, we suggest a mechanism for this type of flare consisting of a double set of ribbons triggered by an erupting sigmoid in a large-scale fan-spine-type magnetic configuration.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Parallel simulation via SPPARKS of on-lattice kinetic and Metropolis Monte Carlo models for materials processing

Abstract SPPARKS is an open-source parallel simulation code for developing and running various kinds of on-lattice Monte Carlo models at the atomic or meso scales. It can be used to study the properties of solid-state materials as well as model their dynamic evolution during processing. The modular nature of the code allows new models and diagnostic computations to be added without modification to its core functionality, including its parallel algorithms. A variety of models for microstructural evolution (grain growth), solid-state diffusion, thin film deposition, and additive manufacturing (AM) processes are included in the code. SPPARKS can also be used to implement grid-based algorithms such as phase field or cellular automata models, to run either in tandem with a Monte Carlo method or independently. For very large systems such as AM applications, the Stitch I/O library is included, which enables only a small portion of a huge system to be resident in memory. In this paper we describe SPPARKS and its parallel algorithms and performance, explain how new Monte Carlo models can be added, and highlight a variety of applications which have been developed within the code.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Assessment of the strength of kinetic effects of parallel electron transport in the SOL and divertor of JET high radiative H-mode plasmas using EDGE2D-EIRENE and KIPP codes

The kinetic code for plasma periphery (KIPP) was used here to assess the importance of the kinetic effects of parallel electron transport in the scrape-off layer (SOL) and divertor of JET high radiative H-mode inter-ELM plasma conditions with the ITER-like wall and strong nitrogen (N 2 ) injection. Plasma parameter profiles along a magnetic field from one of the EDGE2D-EIRENE simulation cases were used as an input for KIPP runs. Profiles were maintained by particle and power sources. KIPP generated electron distribution functions, f e , parallel power fluxes, electron–ion thermoforces, Debye sheath potential drops and electron sheath transmission factors at divertor targets. For heat fluxes in the main SOL, KIPP results showed deviations from classical (e.g. Braginskii) fluxes by factors typically of ~1.5, sometimes up to 2, with the flux limiting for more upstream positions and flux enhancement near entrances to the divertor. In the divertor, at the same time, for radial positions closer to the separatrix, very large heat flux enhancement factors of up to ten or even higher, indicative of a strong nonlocal heat transport, were found at the outer target, with heat power flux density exhibiting bump-on-tail features at high energies. Under such extreme conditions, however, contributions of conductive power fluxes to total power fluxes were strongly reduced, with convective power fluxes becoming comparable, or sometimes exceeding, conductive power fluxes. Electron–ion thermoforce, on the other hand, which is known to be determined mostly by thermal and subthermal electrons, was found to be in good agreement with Braginskii formulas, including the Z eff dependence. Overall, KIPP results indicate, at least for the plasma conditions used in this modelling, a sizable, but not dominant, effect of kinetics on parallel electron transport.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

A phase-shift-periodic parallel boundary condition for low-magnetic-shear scenarios

Abstract We formulate a generalized periodic boundary condition as a limit of the standard twist-and-shift parallel boundary condition that is suitable for simulations of plasmas with low magnetic shear. This is done by applying a phase shift in the binormal direction when crossing the parallel boundary. While this phase shift can be set to zero without loss of generality in the local flux-tube limit when employing the twist-and-shift boundary condition, we show that this is not the most general case when employing periodic parallel boundaries, and may not even be the most desirable. A non-zero phase shift can be used to avoid the convective cells that plague simulations of the three-dimensional Hasegawa–Wakatani system, and is shown to have measurable effects in periodic low-magnetic-shear gyrokinetic simulations. We propose a numerical program where a sampling of periodic simulations at random pseudo-irrational flux surfaces are used to determine physical observables in a statistical sense. This approach can serve as an alternative to applying the twist-and-shift boundary condition to low-magnetic-shear scenarios, which, while more straightforward, can be computationally demanding.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Parallelized Kalman-Filter-Based Reconstruction of Particle Tracks on Many-Core Architectures

Faced with physical and energy density limitations on clock speed, contemporary microprocessor designers have increasingly turned to on-chip parallelism for performance gains. Algorithms should accordingly be designed with ample amounts of fine-grained parallelism if they are to realize the full performance of the hardware. This requirement can be challenging for algorithms that are naturally expressed as a sequence of small-matrix operations, such as the Kalman filter methods widely in use in high-energy physics experiments. In the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC), for example, one of the dominant computational problems is expected to be finding and fitting charged-particle tracks during event reconstruction; today, the most common track-finding methods are those based on the Kalman filter. Experience at the LHC, both in the trigger and offline, has shown that these methods are robust and provide high physics performance. Previously we reported the significant parallel speedups that resulted from our efforts to adapt Kalman-filter-based tracking to many-core architectures such as Intel Xeon Phi. Here we report on how effectively those techniques can be applied to more realistic detector configurations and event complexity.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Optimizing the hit finding algorithm for liquid argon TPC neutrino detectors using parallel architectures

Neutrinos are particles that interact rarely, so identifying them requires large detectors which produce lots of data. Processing this data with the computing power available is becoming even more difficult as the detectors increase in size to reach their physics goals. Liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) neutrino experiments are expected to grow in the next decade to have 100 times more wires than in currently operating experiments, and modernization of LArTPC reconstruction code, including parallelization both at data- and instruction-level, will help to mitigate this challenge. The LArTPC hit finding algorithm is used across multiple experiments through a common software framework. In this paper we discuss a parallel implementation of this algorithm. Using a standalone setup we find speedup factors of two times from vectorization and 30–100 times from multi-threading on Intel architectures. The new version has been incorporated back into the framework so that it can be used by experiments. On a serial execution, the integrated version is about 10 times faster than the previous one and, once parallelization is enabled, more speedups comparable to the standalone program are achieved.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

GROMACS 4.5: A high-throughput and highly parallel open source molecular simulation toolkit

In this study, molecular simulation has historically been a low-throughput technique, but faster computers and increasing amounts of genomic and structural data are changing this by enabling large-scale automated simulation of, for instance, many conformers or mutants of biomolecules with or without a range of ligands. At the same time, advances in performance and scaling now make it possible to model complex biomolecular interaction and function in a manner directly testable by experiment. These applications share a need for fast and efficient software that can be deployed on massive scale in clusters, web servers, distributed computing or cloud resources. As a result, we present a range of new simulation algorithms and features developed during the past 4 years, leading up to the GROMACS 4.5 software package. The software now automatically handles wide classes of biomolecules, such as proteins, nucleic acids and lipids, and comes with all commonly used force fields for these molecules built-in. GROMACS supports several implicit solvent models, as well as new free-energy algorithms, and the software now uses multithreading for efficient parallelization even on low-end systems, including windows-based workstations. Together with hand-tuned assembly kernels and state-of-the-art parallelization, this provides extremely high performance and cost efficiency for high-throughput as well as massively parallel simulations.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Regional heritability advanced complex trait analysis for GPU and traditional parallel architectures

Motivation: Quantification of the contribution of genetic variation to phenotypic variation for complex traits becomes increasingly computationally demanding with increasing numbers of single-nucleotide polymorphisms and individuals. To meet the challenges in making feasible large-scale studies, we present the REgional heritability advanced complex trait analysis software. Adapted from advanced complex trait analysis (and, in turn, genome-wide complex trait analysis), it is tailored to exploit the parallelism present in modern traditional and graphics processing unit (GPU)-accelerated machines, from workstations to supercomputers. Results: We adapt the genetic relationship matrix estimation algorithm to remove limitations on memory, allowing the analysis of large datasets. Further, we build on this to develop a version of the code able to efficiently exploit GPU-accelerated systems for both the genetic relationship matrix and REstricted maximum likelihood (REML) parts of the analysis, offering substantial speedup over the traditional central processing unit version. We develop the ability to analyze multiple small regions of the genome across multiple compute nodes in parallel, following the ‘regional heritability’ approach. We demonstrate the new software using 1024 GPUs in parallel on one of the world’s fastest supercomputers. Availability: The code is freely available at http://www.epcc.ed.ac.uk/software-products

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Drosophila melanogaster pigmentation demonstrates adaptive phenotypic parallelism over multiple spatiotemporal scales

Abstract Populations are capable of responding to environmental change over ecological timescales via adaptive tracking. However, the translation from patterns of allele frequency change to rapid adaptation of complex traits remains unresolved. We used abdominal pigmentation in Drosophila melanogaster as a model phenotype to address the nature, genetic architecture, and repeatability of rapid adaptation in the field. We show that D. melanogaster pigmentation evolves as a highly parallel and deterministic response to shared environmental variation across latitude and season in natural North American populations. We then experimentally evolved replicate, genetically diverse fly populations in field mesocosms to remove any confounding effects of demography and/or cryptic structure that may drive patterns in wild populations; we show that pigmentation rapidly responds, in parallel, in fewer than 15 generations. Thus, pigmentation evolves concordantly in response to spatial and temporal climatic axes. We next examined whether phenotypic differentiation was associated with allele frequency change at loci with established links to genetic variance in pigmentation in natural populations. We found that across all spatial and temporal scales, phenotypic patterns were associated with variation at pigmentation-related loci, and the sets of genes we identified at each scale were largely nonoverlapping. Therefore, our findings suggest that parallel phenotypic evolution is associated with distinct components of the polygenic architecture shifting across each environmental axis to produce redundant adaptive patterns.

Evolutionary Biology↗

The hTERT core promoter forms three parallel G-quadruplexes

The structure of the 68 nt sequence with G-quadruplex forming potential within the hTERT promoter is disputed. One model features a structure with three stacked parallel G-quadruplex units, while another features an unusual duplex hairpin structure adjoined to two stacked parallel and antiparallel quadruplexes. We report here the results of an integrated structural biology study designed to distinguish between these possibilities. As part of our study, we designed a sequence with an optimized hairpin structure and show that its biophysical and biochemical properties are inconsistent with the structure formed by the hTERT wild-type sequence. By using circular dichroism, thermal denaturation, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, analytical ultracentrifugation, small-angle X-ray scattering, molecular dynamics simulations and a DNase I cleavage assay we found that the wild type hTERT core promoter folds into a stacked, three-parallel G-quadruplex structure. The hairpin structure is inconsistent with all of our experimental data obtained with the wild-type sequence. All-atom models for both structures were constructed using molecular dynamics simulations. These models accurately predicted the experimental hydrodynamic properties measured for each structure. We found with certainty that the wild-type hTERT promoter sequence does not form a hairpin structure in solution, but rather folds into a compact stacked three-G-quadruplex conformation.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Random fields from quenched disorder in an archetype for correlated electrons: The parallel spin stripe phase of La 1.6 – x Nd 0.4 Sr x CuO 4 at the 1/8 anomaly

The parallel stripe phase is remarkable both in its own right, and in relation to the other phases with which it coexists. Its inhomogeneous nature makes such states susceptible to random fields from quenched magnetic vacancies. Here we argue this is the case by introducing low concentrations of nonmagnetic Zn impurities (0%–10%) into La 1.6–x ⁢Nd 0.4⁢ Sr x ⁢CuO 4 (Nd-LSCO) with x=0.125 in single-crystal form, well below the percolation threshold of ~41% for a two-dimensional square lattice. Elastic neutron scattering measurements on these crystals show clear magnetic quasi-Bragg peaks at all Zn dopings. While all the Zn-doped crystals display order parameters that merge into each other and the background at ~68 K, the temperature dependence of the order parameter as a function of Zn concentration is drastically different. This result is consistent with meandering charge stripes within the parallel stripe phase, which are pinned in the presence of quenched magnetic vacancies. In turn it implies vacancies that preferentially occupy sites within the charge stripes, and hence that can be very effective at disrupting superconductivity in Nd-LSCO (x=0.125), and, by extension, in all systems exhibiting parallel stripes.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗