QCD fields rendered using AVS Express

QCD flux tube between two quarks

Visualisation of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD)

Professor Derek Leinweber, Discipline of Physics, University of Adelaide

QCD is a theory used to describe the interactions of quarks and gluons, fundamental sub-atomic particles which comprise more-familiar particles such as protons and neutrons.

Converting the mathematics of QCD theory into computer code, researchers are able to model the behaviour of these fundamental fields and particles. Such simulations are run on powerful supercomputers, such as those operated by SAPAC, where their high computational speed and data-handling ability allow the vast number of calculations required to be performed in reasonable time-frames.

Visualisation packages, such as Advanced Visual Systems (AVS) Express, are used to convert the large amount of data which are generated by such simulations into images. In many cases, various parameters of the model are calculated on a regular (x,y,z) grid, and AVS Express will be used to display these data as a three-dimensional plot.

Such graphical representation allows the researcher to see, in a simple and intuitively understood way, the variation in the data values across the simulated space. If the data are generated for different values of time, the evolution of these quantum-scaled fields and particles may be shown in a way that greatly assists their understanding.

Furthermore, with the appropriate display hardware (such as SAPAC's VisLab, SAVRC, or desktop visualisation workstations), the images can viewed in real-time in stereo. As in many other fields of study, such stereoscopic viewing allows one much more readily to interpret complex three-dimensional structure than does monoscopic viewing. Indeed, the use of general visualisation software such as AVS Express, coupled with stereoscopic display, is of benefit to many areas of research.

Some of Derek's animation work (see here for several examples), produced using AVS Express, was used in Prof. Frank Wilczek's 2004 Nobel Prize Lecture.