User-Safe "Virtual Laboratory" Environment for High-Voltage Radiation Source Experiments

The advent of advanced scientific computation capabilities has enabled high fidelity simulations that can predict the performance of experimental tests over a wide variety of physical problems. This ability to virtually test and prototype can open new avenues of scientific inquiry by providing the means to study complex physical phenomena at institutions without the resources to field experimental programs and deal with the resulting safety hazards. We propose to develop a computational tool that will allow the construction of a "virtual laboratory" to investigate the physics of electromagnetic radiation sources. Building on mature software efforts such as Particle-in-Cell, Magneto-Hydrodynamics, and x-ray transport codes, we propose designing an object-orientated environment that can combine these codes into a large-scale system of interconnected systems. Leveraging The University of New Mexico's experience with the Rational Unified Process and Universal Modeling Language against NumerEx's experience with physics algorithm development, we will lay the ground work for a tool that combines existing physics packages in such a way as to allow continued independent development of the physics software, while ensuring that the combined capabilities of the software can be brought to bear with sufficient accuracy for the first principles simulation of novel radiation sources.