Nuclear & Particle Physics, Astrophysics, Cosmology

Researchers investigate details of an astronomical simulation in the CAVE at the Los Alamos SuperComputing Center. CAVE stands for Cave Automatic Virtual Environment or immersive virtual reality environment.

Nuclear and particle physics, applied physics

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Director McMillan on Leadership

Basic experimental and theoretical research is carried out that addresses tests of the standard model and studies of quantum chromodynamics, specifically:

• Nuclear astrophysics and nuclear data
• Neutrino physics, fundamental symmetries studied via neutron decay, heavy ions (quark-gluon plasma and nucleon spin), and nuclear astrophysics
• Application of basic research to isotope production, nuclear weapons, and nuclear threat reduction
• Proton radiography, muon tomography, proton active interrogation, wide-angle, fast-response optical telescopes, and more

High performance computing and visualization

High performance computing teams at LANL create world-class open and secure high-performance computing production systems, including the Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC) program supercomputers, through applied research and technology. High performance computing is on the leading edge of unprecedented-scale computing required to solve complex problems of strategic national interest.

Visualization methods transform datasets from raw numbers to geometric and image-based representations that help people understand their data. LANL’s visualization tools are used by scientists worldwide to visualize their massive datasets.

Astrophysics and cosmology

Collaborations in these areas involve scientists from across LANL. There is a great breadth in the research being done, including gravitation and gravitational waves, precision cosmology, dark matter and dark energy, neutrino physics, astroparticle physics, high energy astrophysics, cosmology and galaxy formation, plasma astrophysics, proto-planet formation and migration, and astrophysical data analysis and processing.