Exploiting Highly Concurrent Computers for Physics

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Abstract
Computational physics—that is, the use of computers to solve problems by simulating theoretical models—is part of a new methodology that has taken its place alongside theory and experiment during the last 50 years or so. Computer simulations permit one to study microscopic properties and their macroscopic consequences in a host of problems that may be inaccessible to direct experimental study or too complex for theoretical analysis. Thus computers have become laboratories for experimenting with theories. The growth of computational physics has been fueled by the explosion in the availability of relatively cheap and powerful computers—and, for just that reason, the field is utterly dependent for its good health on continued advances in computer technology.