A calculation so complex that it takes twenty years to complete on a powerful desktop computer can now be done in one hour on a regular laptop. Physicist Andreas Ekström at Chalmers University of Technology, together with international research colleagues, has designed a new method to calculate the properties of atomic nuclei incredibly quickly.
The new approach is based on a concept called emulation, where an approximate calculation replaces a complete and more complex calculation. Although the researchers are taking a shortcut, the solution ends up almost exactly the same. It is reminiscent of algorithms from machine learning, but ultimately the researchers have designed a completely new method. It opens up even more possibilities in fundamental research in areas such as nuclear physics.
“Now that we can emulate atomic nuclei using this method, we have a completely new tool to construct and analyze theoretical descriptions of the forces between protons and neutrons inside the atomic nucleus,” says research leader Andreas Ekström, Associate Professor at the Department of Physics at Chalmers.
​Fundamental to understanding our existence The subject may sound niche, but it is in fact fundamental to understanding our existence and the stability and origin of visible matter. Most of the atomic mass resides in the center of the atom, in a dense region called the atomic nucleus. The constituent particles of the nucleus, the protons and neutrons, are held together by something called the strong force. Although this force is so central to our existence, no one knows exactly how it works. To increase our knowledge and unravel the fundamental properties of visible matter, researchers need to be able to model the properties of atomic nuclei with great accuracy.