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IBEAM is an astrophysical software framework in development, and its ultimate goal is to model the most violent, dramatic phenomena in the Universe, such as stellar death in the form of a GRB. It integrates a collection of computer programs, each of which models some aspect of astrophysical phenomena. For GRBs, two critical components are radiation flow, and colliding shock waves. The programs are also broken down into specialized “cells” that further sub-divide the work.
According to Doug Swesty, a professor of astrophysics at SUNY/ Stony Brook, and member of the IBEAM team, IBEAM already has achieved the ability to model radiation flow, and the team is beginning to apply initial models of colliding shock waves a critical part of making jet models for GRBs. The special challenge is that they anticipate they are dealing with ultrarelativistic speeds, i.e., matter moving at greater than 99% the speed of light. Part of their process involves the use of “adaptive meshes” – special modules of computer code that allow important cells to drill down to finer and finer detail in its analysis. The team hopes to be replicating the rapid variations observed in the GRB light curves in their simulations within six months.
Read more about NASA CT’s IBEAM work here
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