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Claudio Gheller

Publications and source records attributed to Claudio Gheller.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Gadget3 on GPUs with OpenACC

We present preliminary results of a GPU porting of all main Gadget3 modules (gravity computation, SPH density computation, SPH hydrodynamic force, and thermal conduction) using OpenACC directives. Here we assign one GPU to each MPI rank and exploit both the host and accellerator capabilities by overlapping computations on the CPUs and GPUs: while GPUs asynchronously compute interactions between particles within their MPI ranks, CPUs perform tree-walks and MPI communications of neighbouring particles. We profile various portions of the code to understand the origin of our speedup, where we find that a peak speedup is not achieved because of time-steps with few active particles. We run a hydrodynamic cosmological simulation from the Magneticum project, with $2\cdot10^{7}$ particles, where we find a final total speedup of $\approx 2.$ We also present the results of an encouraging scaling test of a preliminary gravity-only OpenACC porting, run in the context of the EuroHack17 event, where the prototype of the porting proved to keep a constant speedup up to $1024$ GPUs.

astro-ph.IM↗

Gyrokinetic Simulations on Many- and Multi-core Architectures with the Global Electromagnetic Particle-In-Cell Code ORB5

Gyrokinetic codes in plasma physics need outstanding computational resources to solve increasingly complex problems, requiring the effective exploitation of cutting-edge HPC architectures. This paper focuses on the enabling of ORB5, a state-of-the-art, first-principles-based gyrokinetic code, on modern parallel hybrid multi-core, multi-GPU systems. ORB5 is a Lagrangian, Particle-In-Cell (PIC), finite element, global, electromagnetic code, originally implementing distributed parallelism through MPI-based on domain decomposition and domain cloning. In order to support multi/many cores devices, the code has been completely refactored. Data structures have been re-designed to ensure efficient memory access, enhancing data locality. Multi-threading has been introduced through OpenMP on the CPU and adopting OpenACC to support GPU acceleration. MPI can still be used in combination with the two approaches. The performance results obtained using the full production ORB5 code on the Summit system at ORNL, on Piz Daint at CSCS and on the Marconi system at CINECA are presented, showing the effectiveness and performance portability of the adopted solutions: the same source code version was used to produce all results on all architectures.

physics.comp-ph↗

A survey of the thermal and non-thermal properties of cosmic filaments

In this paper, we exploit a large suite of {\enzo} cosmological magneto-hydrodynamical simulations adopting uniform mesh resolution, to investigate the properties of cosmic filaments under different baryonic physics and magnetogenesis scenarios. We exploit a isovolume based algorithm to identify filaments and determine their attributes from the continuous distribution of gas mass density in the simulated volumes. The global (e.g. mass, size, mean temperature and magnetic field strength, enclosed baryon fraction) and internal (e.g. density, temperature, velocity and magnetic field profiles) properties of filaments in our volume are calculated across almost four orders of magnitude in mass. The inclusion of variations in non-gravitational physical processes (radiative cooling, star formation, feedback from star forming regions and active galactic nuclei) as well as in the seeding scenarios for magnetic fields (early magnetisation by primordial process vs later seeding by galaxies) allows us to study both the large-scale thermodynamics and the magnetic properties of the Warm-Hot Intergalactic Medium (WHIM) with an unprecedented detail. We show how the impact of non-gravitational physics on the global thermodynamical properties of filaments is modest, with the exception of the densest gas environment surrounding galaxies in filaments. Conversely, the magnetic properties of the WHIM in filament are found to dramatically vary as different seeding scenarios are considered. We study the correlation between the properties of galaxy-sized halos and their host filaments, as well as between the halos and the local WHIM in which they lie. Significant general statistical trends are reported.

astro-ph.CO↗

Deep Learning Based Detection of Cosmological Diffuse Radio Sources

In this paper we introduce a reliable, fully automated and fast algorithm to detect extended extragalactic radio sources (cluster of galaxies, filaments) in existing and forthcoming surveys (like LOFAR and SKA). The proposed solution is based on the adoption of a Deep Learning approach, more specifically a Convolutional Neural Network, that proved to perform outstandingly in the processing, recognition and classification of images. The challenge, in the case of radio interferometric data, is the presence of noise and the lack of a sufficiently large number of labeled images for the training. We have specifically addressed these problems and the resulting software, COSMODEEP proved to be an accurate, efficient and effective solution for detecting very faint sources in the simulated radio images. We present the comparison with standard source finding techniques, and discuss advantages and limitations of our new approach.

astro-ph.IM↗

Interactive 3D Visualization for Theoretical Virtual Observatories

Virtual Observatories (VOs) are online hubs of scientific knowledge. They encompass a collection of platforms dedicated to the storage and dissemination of astronomical data, from simple data archives to e-research platforms offering advanced tools for data exploration and analysis. Whilst the more mature platforms within VOs primarily serve the observational community, there are also services fulfilling a similar role for theoretical data. Scientific visualization can be an effective tool for analysis and exploration of datasets made accessible through web platforms for theoretical data, which often contain spatial dimensions and properties inherently suitable for visualization via e.g. mock imaging in 2d or volume rendering in 3d. We analyze the current state of 3d visualization for big theoretical astronomical datasets through scientific web portals and virtual observatory services. We discuss some of the challenges for interactive 3d visualization and how it can augment the workflow of users in a virtual observatory context. Finally we showcase a lightweight client-server visualization tool for particle-based datasets allowing quantitative visualization via data filtering, highlighting two example use cases within the Theoretical Astrophysical Observatory.

astro-ph.IM↗

DIAPHANE: a Portable Radiation Transport Library for Astrophysical Applications

One of the most computationally demanding aspects of the hydrodynamical modelling of Astrophysical phenomena is the transport of energy by radiation or relativistic particles. Physical processes involving energy transport are ubiquitous and of capital importance in many scenarios ranging from planet formation to cosmic structure evolution, including explosive events like core collapse supernova or gamma-ray bursts. Moreover, the ability to model and hence understand these processes has often been limited by the approximations and incompleteness in the treatment of radiation and relativistic particles. The DIAPHANE project has focused in developing a portable and scalable library that handles the transport of radiation and particles (in particular neutrinos) independently of the underlying hydrodynamic code. In this work, we present the computational framework and the functionalities of the first version of the DIAPHANE library, which has been successfully ported to three different smoothed-particle hydrodynamic codes, GADGET2, GASOLINE and SPHYNX. We also present validation of different modules solving the equations of radiation and neutrino transport using different numerical schemes.

astro-ph.IM↗

On the non-thermal energy content of cosmic structures

1) Background: the budget of non-thermal energy in galaxy clusters is not well constrained, owing to the observational and theoretical difficulties in studying these diluted plasmas on large scales. 2) Method: we use recent cosmological simulations with complex physics in order to connect the emergence of non-thermal energy to the underlying evolution of gas and dark matter. 3) Results: the impact of non-thermal energy (e.g. cosmic rays, magnetic fields and turbulent motions) is found to increase in the outer region of galaxy clusters. Within numerical and theoretical uncertainties, turbulent motions dominate the budget of non-thermal energy in most of the cosmic volume. 4) Conclusion: assessing the distribution non-thermal energy in galaxy clusters is crucial to perform high-precision cosmology in the future. Constraining the level of non-thermal energy in cluster outskirts will improve our understanding of the acceleration of relativistic particles by cosmic shocks and of the origin of extragalactic magnetic fields.

astro-ph.CO↗

Evolution of cosmic filaments and of their galaxy population from MHD cosmological simulations

Despite containing about a half of the total matter in the Universe, at most wavelengths the filamentary structure of the cosmic web is difficult to observe. In this work, we use large unigrid cosmological simulations to investigate how the geometrical, thermodynamical and magnetic properties of cosmological filaments vary with mass and redshift (z $\leq 1$). We find that the average temperature, length, volume and magnetic field of filaments are tightly log-log correlated with the underlying total gravitational mass. This reflects the role of self-gravity in shaping their properties and enables statistical predictions of their observational properties based on their mass. We also focus on the properties of the simulated population of galaxy-sized halos within filaments, and compare their properties to the results obtained from the spectroscopic GAMA survey. Simulated and observed filaments with the same length are found to contain an equal number of galaxies, with very similar distribution of halo masses. The total number of galaxies within each filament and the total/average stellar mass in galaxies can now be used to predict also the large-scale properties of the gas in the host filaments across tens or hundreds of Mpc in scale. These results are the first steps towards the future use of galaxy catalogues in order to select the best targets for observations of the warm-hot intergalactic medium.

astro-ph.CO↗

Splotch: porting and optimizing for the Xeon Phi

With the increasing size and complexity of data produced by large scale numerical simulations, it is of primary importance for scientists to be able to exploit all available hardware in heterogenous High Performance Computing environments for increased throughput and efficiency. We focus on the porting and optimization of Splotch, a scalable visualization algorithm, to utilize the Xeon Phi, Intel's coprocessor based upon the new Many Integrated Core architecture. We discuss steps taken to offload data to the coprocessor and algorithmic modifications to aid faster processing on the many-core architecture and make use of the uniquely wide vector capabilities of the device, with accompanying performance results using multiple Xeon Phi. Finally performance is compared against results achieved with the GPU implementation of Splotch.

cs.DC↗

Properties of Cosmological Filaments extracted from Eulerian Simulations

Using a new parallel algorithm implemented within the VisIt framework, we analysed large cosmological grid simulations to study the properties of baryons in filaments. The procedure allows us to build large catalogues with up to $\sim 3 \cdot 10^4$ filaments per simulated volume and to investigate the properties of cosmic filaments for very large volumes at high resolution (up to $300^3 ~\rm Mpc^3$ simulated with $2048^3$ cells). We determined scaling relations for the mass, volume, length and temperature of filaments and compared them to those of galaxy clusters. The longest filaments have a total length of about $200 ~\rm Mpc$ with a mass of several $10^{15} M_{\odot}$. We also investigated the effects of different gas physics. Radiative cooling significantly modifies the thermal properties of the warm-hot-intergalactic medium of filaments, mainly by lowering their mean temperature via line cooling. On the other hand, powerful feedback from active galactic nuclei in surrounding halos can heat up the gas in filaments. The impact of shock-accelerated cosmic rays from diffusive shock acceleration on filaments is small and the ratio of between cosmic ray and gas pressure within filaments is of the order of $\sim 10-20$ percent.

astro-ph.CO↗

Filaments of the radio cosmic web: opportunities and challenges for SKA

The detection of the diffuse gas component of the cosmic web remains a formidable challenge. In this work we study synchrotron emission from the cosmic web with simulated SKA1 observations, which can represent an fundamental probe of the warm-hot intergalactic medium. We investigate radio emission originated by relativistic electrons accelerated by shocks surrounding cosmic filaments, assuming diffusive shock acceleration and as a function of the (unknown) large-scale magnetic fields. The detection of the brightest parts of large ($>10 \rm Mpc$) filaments of the cosmic web should be within reach of the SKA1-LOW, if the magnetic field is at the level of a $\sim 10$ percent equipartition with the thermal gas, corresponding to $\sim 0.1 μG$ for the most massive filaments in simulations. In the course of a 2-years survey with SKA1-LOW, this will enable a first detection of the "tip of the iceberg" of the radio cosmic web, and allow for the use of the SKA as a powerful tool to study the origin of cosmic magnetism in large-scale structures. On the other hand, the SKA1-MID and SKA1-SUR seem less suited for this science case at low redshift ($z \leq 0.4$), owing to the missing short baselines and the consequent lack of signal from the large-scale brightness fluctuations associated with the filaments. In this case only very long exposures ($\sim 1000$ hr) may enable the detection of $\sim 1-2$ filament for field of view in the SKA1-SUR PAF Band1.

astro-ph.CO↗

Numerical cosmology on the GPU with Enzo and Ramses

A number of scientific numerical codes can currently exploit GPUs with remarkable performance. In astrophysics, Enzo and Ramses are prime examples of such applications. The two codes have been ported to GPUs adopting different strategies and programming models, Enzo adopting CUDA and Ramses using OpenACC. We describe here the different solutions used for the GPU implementation of both cases. Performance benchmarks will be presented for Ramses. The results of the usage of the more mature GPU version of Enzo, adopted for a scientific project within the CHRONOS programme, will be summarised.

astro-ph.IM↗

GPU Accelerated Particle Visualization with Splotch

Splotch is a rendering algorithm for exploration and visual discovery in particle-based datasets coming from astronomical observations or numerical simulations. The strengths of the approach are production of high quality imagery and support for very large-scale datasets through an effective mix of the OpenMP and MPI parallel programming paradigms. This article reports our experiences in re-designing Splotch for exploiting emerging HPC architectures nowadays increasingly populated with GPUs. A performance model is introduced for data transfers, computations and memory access, to guide our re-factoring of Splotch. A number of parallelization issues are discussed, in particular relating to race conditions and workload balancing, towards achieving optimal performances. Our implementation was accomplished by using the CUDA programming paradigm. Our strategy is founded on novel schemes achieving optimized data organisation and classification of particles. We deploy a reference simulation to present performance results on acceleration gains and scalability. We finally outline our vision for future work developments including possibilities for further optimisations and exploitation of emerging technologies.

astro-ph.IM↗

IVOA Recommendation: Simulation Data Model

In this document and the accompanying documents we describe a data model (Simulation Data Model) describing numerical computer simulations of astrophysical systems. The primary goal of this standard is to support discovery of simulations by describing those aspects of them that scientists might wish to query on, i.e. it is a model for meta-data describing simulations. This document does not propose a protocol for using this model. IVOA protocols are being developed and are supposed to use the model, either in its original form or in a form derived from the model proposed here, but more suited to the particular protocol. The SimDM has been developed in the IVOA Theory Interest Group with assistance of representatives of relevant working groups, in particular DM and Semantics.

astro-ph.IM↗

Simulations of cosmic rays in large-scale structures: numerical and physical effects

Non-thermal (relativistic) particles are injected into the cosmos by structure formation shock waves, active galactic nuclei and stellar explosions. We present a suite of unigrid cosmological simulations (up to $2048^3$) using a two-fluid model in the grid code ENZO. The simulations include the dynamical effects of cosmic-ray (CR) protons and cover a range of theoretically motivated acceleration efficiencies. For the bulk of the cosmic volume the modelling of CR processes is rather stable with respect to resolution, provided that a minimum (cell) resolution of $\approx 100 ~\rm kpc/h$ is employed. However, the results for the innermost cluster regions depend on the assumptions for the baryonic physics. Inside clusters, non-radiative runs at high resolution tend to produce an energy density of CRs that are below available upper limits from the FERMI satellite, while the radiative runs are found to produce a higher budget of CRs. We show that weak ($M \leq 3-5$) shocks and shock-reacceleration are crucial to set the level of CRs in the innermost region of clusters, while in the outer regions the level of CR energy is mainly set via direct injection by stronger shocks, and is less sensitive to cooling and feedback from active galactic nuclei and supernovae.

astro-ph.CO↗

Massive and refined: a sample of large galaxy clusters simulated at high resolution. I:Thermal gas and shock waves properties

We present a sample of 20 massive galaxy clusters with total virial masses in the range of 6 10^14 M_sol<M(vir)< 2 10^15M_sol, re-simulated with a customized version of the 1.5. ENZO code employing Adaptive Mesh Refinement. This technique allowed us to obtain unprecedented high spatial resolution (25kpc/h) up to the distance of 3 virial radii from the clusters center, and makes it possible to focus with the same level of detail on the physical properties of the innermost and of the outermost cluster regions, providing new clues on the role of shock waves and turbulent motions in the ICM, across a wide range of scales. In this paper, a first exploratory study of this data set is presented. We report on the thermal properties of galaxy clusters at z=0. Integrated and morphological properties of gas density, gas temperature, gas entropy and baryon fraction distributions are discussed, and compared with existing outcomes both from the observational and from the numerical literature. Our cluster sample shows an overall good consistency with the results obtained adopting other numerical techniques (e.g. Smoothed Particles Hydrodynamics), yet it provides a more accurate representation of the accretion patterns far outside the cluster cores. We also reconstruct the properties of shock waves within the sample by means of a velocity-based approach, and we study Mach numbers and energy distributions for the various dynamical states in clusters, giving estimates for the injection of Cosmic Rays particles at shocks. The present sample is rather unique in the panorama of cosmological simulations of massive galaxy clusters, due to its dynamical range, statistics of objects and number of time outputs. For this reason, we deploy a public repository of the available data, accessible via web portal at http://data.cineca.it.

astro-ph.CO↗

High-performance astrophysical visualization using Splotch

The scientific community is presently witnessing an unprecedented growth in the quality and quantity of data sets coming from simulations and real-world experiments. To access effectively and extract the scientific content of such large-scale data sets (often sizes are measured in hundreds or even millions of Gigabytes) appropriate tools are needed. Visual data exploration and discovery is a robust approach for rapidly and intuitively inspecting large-scale data sets, e.g. for identifying new features and patterns or isolating small regions of interest within which to apply time-consuming algorithms. This paper presents a high performance parallelized implementation of Splotch, our previously developed visual data exploration and discovery algorithm for large-scale astrophysical data sets coming from particle-based simulations. Splotch has been improved in order to exploit modern massively parallel architectures, e.g. multicore CPUs and CUDA-enabled GPUs. We present performance and scalability benchmarks on a number of test cases, demonstrating the ability of our high performance parallelized Splotch to handle efficiently large-scale data sets, such as the outputs of the Millennium II simulation, the largest cosmological simulation ever performed.

astro-ph.IM↗

Visualization, Exploration and Data Analysis of Complex Astrophysical Data

In this paper we show how advanced visualization tools can help the researcher in investigating and extracting information from data. The focus is on VisIVO, a novel open source graphics application, which blends high performance multidimensional visualization techniques and up-to-date technologies to cooperate with other applications and to access remote, distributed data archives. VisIVO supports the standards defined by the International Virtual Observatory Alliance in order to make it interoperable with VO data repositories. The paper describes the basic technical details and features of the software and it dedicates a large section to show how VisIVO can be used in several scientific cases.

astro-ph↗