Elements: The TARDIS radiative transfer framework - A modeling toolkit for transients

Michigan State University, East Lansing MI

Investigators

Abstract

Supernovae are powerful cosmic explosions and are vital for studying galaxy evolution, heavy element production, and the dynamics of the universe. The TARDIS project aims to advance our understanding of supernovae. TARDIS is an open-science radiative transfer code, that allows scientists to model and simulate various types of supernovae, unlocking insights into their physics. With the number of supernova discoveries rising exponentially, TARDIS provides a valuable tool to comprehend these phenomena. The TARDIS project actively supports scientific education and diversity through training programs and an open-science approach. Thus TARDIS provides opportunities for individuals from varied backgrounds to engage in cutting-edge research and contribute to the scientific community. By utilizing its open-science radiative transfer code, the TARDIS project facilitates scientific progress, benefits society, and promotes inclusivity and diversity within the scientific community. The rapid increase in observational capability has led to vast increases in discovery space in the field of astrophysical transients. Theory has made large leaps due to the widespread availability of supercomputing resources enabling simulation at unprecedented detail. TARDIS is an open-science radiative transfer code that has been used to model a large variety of astrophysical transients (supernovae, superluminous supernovae, kilonovae). The transparent governance structure and equitable access have brought roughly one hundred developers to the project and earned the TARDIS community a fiscal sponsorship from the open-science foundation NUMFOCUS. TARDIS uses state-of-the-art industry-standard techniques based on the GitHub ecosystem. For ease of development and use (with a specific emphasis on including new contributors), the PYTHON language is used, enhanced by its scientific stack (including NUMPY, PANDAS, ASTROPY). The necessary computational speed for TARDIS – without sacrificing the ease of development – is achieved by using a novel Just-In-Time compiler technique provided by the NUMBA package. The distribution of TARDIS is handled via the use of industry-standard package managers for Python packages such as CONDA and PIP. This project uses a two-step approach to restructuring and adding a new time-dependent mode that will enable the use of TARDIS in an order of magnitude more science cases than the current version. It will modularize the TARDIS code base by separating it into state objects and plasma/transport solvers, then adds full-time dependence to the model solver, transport solvers, and plasma steps. These additions to TARDIS will increase the applicability of this open-science code to many more science cases and will also faciliitate a more rapid approach to adding new microphysics directions. This award by the NSF Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure is jointly supported by the NSF Division of Astronomical Sciences. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.