Relativistic hydrodynamics on graphic cards

Abstract

We show how to accelerate relativistic hydrodynamics simulations using graphic cards (graphic processing units, GPUs). These improvements are of highest relevance e.g. to the field of high-energetic nucleus–nucleus collisions at RHIC and LHC where (ideal and dissipative) relativistic hydrodynamics is used to calculate the evolution of hot and dense QCD matter. The results reported here are based on the Sharp And Smooth Transport Algorithm (SHASTA), which is employed in many hydrodynamical models and hybrid simulation packages, e.g. the Ultrarelativistic Quantum Molecular Dynamics model (UrQMD). We have redesigned the SHASTA using the OpenCL computing framework to work on accelerators like graphic processing units (GPUs) as well as on multi-core processors. With the redesign of the algorithm the hydrodynamic calculations have been accelerated by a factor 160 allowing for event-by-event calculations and better statistics in hybrid calculations.