CMU Searches for Dark Matter

Research, News

About a year ago, the Physics Department completed a major strategic planning exercise. In their plan, one of the main elements called for hiring as many as 5 new faculty plus several postdocs and graduate fellows, in areas spanning particle physics, computational astrophysics, and cosmology. In response to the plan, our Provost, Mark Kamlet, quipped, “Well, if you can find out where you misplaced 95% of the matter in the universe, then we can talk about it.”

I thought this was pretty hilarious, though I admit it is perhaps the kind of joke that only a department head would laugh at. ;-)

There is, of course, a very serious scientific matter at hand here. Our observations of the universe have left little doubt that roughly 95% of the matter in the universe is dark. By “dark matter” we mean that we can’t (presently) see it but we know from indirect observation that it must exist, or that something is exerting the gravitational forces that can’t be explained by the known matter. For example, galaxies are observed to have constant stellar rotational velocity, even with increasing distance from the galactic center — a phenomenon that is completely at odds with the amount of gravity that would be produced by the observed stellar mass. Understanding the nature of dark matter (and associated dark energy) is perhaps the fundamental cosmological question in contemporary astrophysics.

To address this and related questions, the Physics Department, in partnership with Computer Science, is launching a new research center, the Astrid and Bruce McWilliams Center for Cosmology. Among other things, the Center will use computational means to investigate the question of dark matter. A generous founding gift from Astrid and Bruce McWilliams will provide the core funds needed to hire new faculty, staff, and equipment necessary to create the Center. An official ceremony to launch the McWilliams Center will be held on campus, on April 22, 2008.

The goal of the McWilliams Center, as described by the Physics Department, is as follows:

Dark Cosmology aims at discovering what makes up the dark part of the universe and how it relates to our understanding of nature at the most fundamental level. The combined efforts of the astrophysics, cosmology and particle physics communities are needed to face the extraordinary situation of trying to understand the physical nature of the 95% of the universe that is dark. This calls for observations from the ground and from space, sophisticated analysis of the astronomical data and comparison with cosmological simulations, experiments to find dark matter particles at accelerators and to detect them in sensitive underground experiments, and theoretical constructs to be developed for physics beyond the Standard Model that lead to an understanding of the dark part of the universe…

…the Center will reach outside by capitalizing on the unique collaborative opportunities afforded by the presence of pre-eminent computer scientists and the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, as well as related research in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Pittsburgh. … a Center for Dark Cosmology…should gain national and international prominence by contributing to answering what has been designated by Science to be the top scientific question of our time.

I am personally committed to helping the Center become a success and hope that the rest of Computer Science will be, too. Working with Fred Gilman (Head of Physics and Interim Dean of the Mellon College of Science) and the University’s Advancement Division, I participated in obtaining a grant from the Gordon Moore Foundation to purchase a high-performance computing cluster, to be shared between the Center and SCS’s graphics group. Indeed, I see the strength of our graphics group in physically-based modeling to be one of several points of collaboration with the McWilliams Center. Our research strengths in algorithms (especially meshes), data mining/clustering, and large-scale storage should also prove to be highly relevant. Looking ahead, future research proposals in areas related to dark cosmology could very well attract funding from programs such as NSF’s Cyber-enabled Discovery and Innovation (CDI) and the LSST project (which is a collaboration that we have just joined). A search for new faculty and postdocs is currently under way in Physics, and Fred Gilman was gracious enough to invite me to join the search committee.

About Bruce McWilliams, a Ph.D. Physics alumnus and Founder and CEO of Tessera Technologies Inc. He has been an absolute joy to work with. He has worked tirelessly to bring the possibilities in cosmology research to the attention of me and others, and in doing so has set up the possibility of Computer Science helping out Physics in this endeavor. He has also been an extremely active alumnus, participating in advisory boards (for example, most recently for HCII) and giving several previous gifts, such as the McWilliams Fellowship. (On top of all of that, Bruce and I share a passion for fast cars and racing, with Bruce’s “stable” including a Ferrari F430 and a Porsche GT! ;-)

An excerpt from Bruce’s gift letter:

I applaud Fred Gilman’s leadership of the Physics Department in developing Centers focused on areas which offer great promise for new discoveries. I find myself particularly excited about the Center for Cosmology which seeks to further understand one of the most basic questions scientist have pondered since the beginning: how did the structure of today’s Universe come about and what is it made of?

The tools for measuring the large scale structure of the Universe are rapidly improving. Recently it has been discovered that most of the mass of the Universe appears to be in the form of “Dark Matter” and “Dark Energy” for which there is no theory to explain what it is and why it exists. These facts suggest that major discoveries may be imminent. Even though there are significant efforts underway at other institutions, I believe CMU can make major contributions to this quest.

Given sufficient resources Carnegie Mellon is well positioned for this mission. The Physics Department today already has significant relevant efforts addressing the Center’s Mission, and commitments are in place for growing the faculty in this area. The vast complexity of what is attempting to be understood demands computational algorithms and capability that are at the leading edge of what is possible, an area where CMU is already world-class. Equally important is innovation in experimental methods, data mining and analysis, areas where the University excels. For these reasons, a Center consisting of interdisciplinary research between Physics and Computer Science could be very competitive to efforts at other leading universities.

To insure CMU has the financial resources to address this opportunity, perpetual endowed resources and expanded sources for research grants and contracts will be required…

As I hope you can see, Bruce’s contributions to Carnegie Mellon go way beyond the money. He has been a source of wisdom and energy, the type of concerned (and fun!) person who seemingly makes good things happen all around him. We are obviously deeply grateful to Bruce and Astrid McWilliams, and by now I consider them good personal friends.

Along with the founding of the Ray and Stephanie Lane Center for Computational Biology, this is one of the most important new developments in basic computing-enabled scientific research at Carnegie Mellon. I am really looking forward to seeing our department help make this a big success.

Peter Lee @ March 16, 2008