SciDAC-5: Enabling Cosmic Discoveries in the Exascale Era

Modern cosmology represents one of the most exciting scientific frontiers today, making possible fundamental discoveries regarding the nature of space, time, and matter over a vast range of scales. Cosmological investigations have entered a decisive new phase led by the DOE HEP-supported Stage IV surveys. With the advent of these unprecedented new datasets, modeling and simulation approaches become crucial in analyzing the wealth of data and in exploring new physics possibilities. Detailed predictions of signatures of new physics and their interaction with astrophysical effects can only be obtained via sophisticated simulations; carried out at the required level of fidelity, this approach provides a controlled testbed to disentangle these signatures from confounding systematics. It is a significant challenge to accurately model and resolve the physics over the huge dynamic range characteristic of the surveys. This project brings together a strong team with extensive involvement in cosmological surveys, state-of-the-art exascale-ready modeling and simulation capabilities, and deep expertise in analysis and statistical methods. This project will lead to the most impactful simulation campaigns for scientific discovery in cosmology.