General purpose graphics-processing-unit implementation of cosmological domain wall network evolution

Abstract

Topological defects unavoidably form at symmetry breaking phase transitions in the early Universe. To probe the parameter space of theoretical models and set tighter experimental constraints (exploiting the recent advances in astrophysical observations), one requires more and more demanding simulations, and therefore more hardware resources and computation time. Improving the speed and efficiency of existing codes is essential. Here we present a General Purpose Graphics Processing Unit implementation of the canonical Press-Ryden-Spergel algorithm for the evolution of cosmological domain wall networks. This is ported to the Open Computing Language standard, and as a consequence significant speed-ups are achieved both in 2D and 3D simulations.