National Center for Computational Sciences

Principal Investigator: David Dean

Affiliation: Oak Ridge National Laboratory

INCITE Allocation: 17,500,000 processor hours

Machine: Cray XT4

Allocation: 7,500,000 processor hours

Research Summary: This project will use ab initio techniques to calculate structural and reaction properties of light- and medium-mass nuclei, including two- and three-nucleon forces. This work could provide an understanding from first principles of triple-alpha burning—the process by which a mature star creates carbon-12 nuclei from helium-4 nuclei. The project will also use the Density Functional Theory to perform structure and nuclear-reaction calculations for the entire nuclear mass table to improve our understanding of the nuclear-energy density functional [p1]and to calculate nuclear properties relevant for the description of nuclear reactions, in particular neutron-nucleus reaction cross sections, and fission.