The Institute for Computational Cosmology (ICC) is a Research Institute at Durham University,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It was founded in November 2002 as part of the Ogden Centre for Fundamental Physics, which also includes the Institute for Particle Physics Phenomenology (IPPP). The ICC's primary mission is to advance fundamental knowledge in

cosmology Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', and in 1731 taken up in Latin by German philosopher ...

. Topics of active research include: the nature of

dark matter Dark matter is a hypothetical form of matter thought to account for approximately 85% of the matter in the universe. Dark matter is called "dark" because it does not appear to interact with the electromagnetic field, which means it does not a ...

and

dark energy In physical cosmology and astronomy, dark energy is an unknown form of energy that affects the universe on the largest scales. The first observational evidence for its existence came from measurements of supernovas, which showed that the univ ...

, the evolution of cosmic structure, the formation of galaxies, and the determination of fundamental parameters. The current director of the ICC is Shaun Cole. ICC researchers have played a central role in the development of the standard model of cosmology, Lambda-CDM model (ΛCDM). Because of the vast scale of questions in cosmology, advances often require supercomputer

simulations A simulation is the imitation of the operation of a real-world process or system over time. Simulations require the use of models; the model represents the key characteristics or behaviors of the selected system or process, whereas the s ...

in which a virtual Universe is allowed to evolve for 13.8 billion years from the Big Bang to the present day. The simulation is rerun with different ingredients or different physics, until it matches the observed Universe. This approach has required one of the most powerful supercomputers for academic research in the world, the “Cosmology Machine (COSMA)” as part of the

DiRAC Distributed Research using Advanced Computing (DiRAC) is an integrated supercomputing facility used for research in particle physics, astronomy and cosmology in the United Kingdom. DiRAC makes use of multi-core processors and provides a variety o ...

supercomputing consortium.Listed as 12th overall in the UK, 134th in the world by

History

Durham University's extragalactic astronomy group was founded in the late 1970s, and secured in 1984-5 with the appointments of Carlos Frenk, Richard Ellis, and Tom Shanks. A group researching theoretical cosmology grew steadily during the 1980s and 1990s, mainly funded by the UK

Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council The Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC) was one of a number of research councils in the United Kingdom. It directed, coordinated and funded research in particle physics and astronomy for the people of the UK. Its head office w ...

(PPARC). A dedicated building for theoretical cosmology was then funded through private donations, principally from alumnus

Peter Ogden Sir Peter Ogden (born 1940) is an English businessman who is one of the founders of Computacenter, one of the United Kingdom's largest computer businesses. Education Ogden was born in Rochdale, England. He was educated at Rochdale Grammar Sch ...

, and opened in 2002 by the Prime Minister,

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...

. The group has grown in these new facilities, and the ICC now hosts more than 60 researchers, including theoretical and observational cosmologists, as well as astroparticle physicists. Although the ICC is strictly speaking a theoretical institute, theory and observations in cosmology are intimately interwoven. Uniquely amongst Durham University's Research Institutes, the ICC and IPPP are structurally integrated within an academic and teaching department,

Physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

. The physics department as a whole was awarded grade 5A in the 2001

Research Assessment Exercise The Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) was an exercise undertaken approximately every five years on behalf of the four UK higher education funding councils (HEFCE, SHEFC, HEFCW, DELNI) to evaluate the quality of research undertaken by British hig ...

(RAE) carried out by the UK government, with the international excellence of research in Astronomy and Particle Physics specifically highlighted. The department's research in Space Science and Astrophysics was rated as number one in Europe and fourth in the world by Thomson Reuters from its Essential Science Indicators (1998–2008). In November 2016, the ICC moved into the brand new ''Ogden Centre for Fundamental Physics'' building, designed by the world renowned Studio Daniel Libeskind. The new building now houses all three astronomy groups in the Department of Physics, including the Centre for Advanced Instrumentation and the Centre for Extragalactic Astronomy, as well as the Institute for Computational Cosmology.

High Performance Computing

The ICC's highest resolution simulations of the evolution of the Universe are performed on the Cosmology Machine (COSMA). COSMA-5 was installed in October 2012, as a hub of the UK national Distributed Research utilitising Advanced Computing (DiRAC) consortium. COSMA-5 includes 6720 2.6 GHz Intel Sandy Bridge

Central processing unit A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor or just Processor (computing), processor, is the electronic circuitry that executes Instruction (computing), instructions comprising a computer program. The CPU per ...

(CPU) cores, 53,760 GByte of RAM, and 2.4PByte of data storage; it is one of the most powerful supercomputers in the world. The ICC acts as one of the two main nodes of the international

Virgo Consortium The Virgo Consortium was founded in 1994 for '' Cosmological Supercomputer Simulations'' in response to the UK's High Performance Computing Initiative. Virgo developed rapidly into an international collaboration between a dozen scientists in the U ...

for cosmological supercomputer simulations.

Outreach

A founding goal of the ICC is to "stimulate young people to aspire to be the scientists of tomorrow". A full-time outreach officer is employed to develop teaching materials that draw upon current research and coordinate
programme of activities
in schools across the North East of England. The ICC has been involved in a number of outreach events aimed at communicating science to the general public, notably: * The ICC's 3D short movie "Cosmic Origins", which combines sequences of real astronomical data and supercomputer simulations, won first prize for best stereoscopic movie at Stereoscopic Displays and Applications XXI. The movie, and its sequel "Cosmic Origins 2" provided the core

entertainment Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and interest of an audience or gives pleasure and delight. It can be an idea or a task, but is more likely to be one of the activities or events that have developed over thousa ...

of a touring public exhibition that visited the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

’s Summer Science Exhibitions 2009, 2010 and 2013, See Further 2010, the British Science Festival 2013, and Thailand's National Science and Technology Fair 2013. *In 2015, the ICC collaborated on The World Machine project, the centrepiece of the 2015 Durham

Lumiere festival Lumiere is the UK's largest light festival. The festival, produced by London-based creative company Artichoke, debuted in Durham in 2009. The festival was part inspired by the Fête des lumières in Lyon. Hosted in winter time, and free to atte ...

This was a celebration of cosmology, projected onto the facade of Durham Cathedral. * In July 2016, the ICC hosted an exhibition titled ''Galaxy Makers: How to make a galaxy'' at the

2016 Summer Exhibition.

References

{{authority control Astronomy institutes and departments Research institutes in the United Kingdom Astronomy in the United Kingdom Educational institutions established in 2002 2002 establishments in England