Solving Einstein's equations on supercomputers

In 1916, Albert Einstein published his famous general theory of relativity, which contains the rules of gravity and provides the basis for modern theo ries of astrophysics and cosmology. For many years, physicists, astrophysic ists, and mathematicians have striven to develop techniques for unlocking t he secrets contained in Einstein's theory of gravity; more recently, comput ational-science research groups have added their expertise to the endeavor Because the underlying scientific project provides such a demanding and ric h system for computational science,techniques developed to solve Einstein's equations will apply immediately to a large family of scientific and engin eering problems. The authors have developed a collaborative computational framework that all ows remote monitoring and visualization of simulations, at the center of wh ich lies a community code called Cactus. Many researchers in the general scientific computing community have already adopted Cactus, as have numerical relativists and astrophysicists. This pa st June, an international team of researchers at various sites ran some of the largest such simulations in numerical relativity yet undertaken, using a 256 processor SGI Origin 2000 supercomputer at NCSA.