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<tt>AthenaK</tt> : A Performance-portable Version of the <tt>Athena++</tt> Adaptive Mesh Refinement Framework

James M. Stone, Patrick D. Mullen, Drummond B. Fielding, Philipp Grete, Minghao Guo, Philipp Kempski, Elias R. Most, Christopher J. White, George N. Wong

2026The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series7 citationsDOIOpen Access PDF

Abstract

Abstract We describe AthenaK : a new implementation of the Athena++ block-based adaptive mesh refinement framework using the Kokkos programming model. Finite volume methods for Newtonian, special relativistic, and general relativistic (GR) hydrodynamics and magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), and GR-radiation hydrodynamics and MHD, as well as a module for evolving Lagrangian tracer or charged test particles (e.g., cosmic rays) are implemented using the framework. In two companion papers, we describe (1) a new solver for the Einstein equations based on the Z4c formalism, and (2) a GRMHD solver in dynamical spacetimes also implemented using the framework, enabling new applications in numerical relativity. By adopting Kokkos , the code can be run on virtually any hardware, including CPUs, GPUs from multiple vendors, and emerging Advanced RISC Machine processors. AthenaK shows excellent performance and weak scaling, achieving over 1 billion cell updates per second for hydrodynamics in three dimensions on a single NVIDIA Grace Hopper processor. It does this with a typical parallel efficiency of 80% on 65,536 AMD GPUs on the OLCF Frontier system. Such performance portability enables AthenaK to leverage modern exascale computing systems for challenging applications in astrophysical fluid dynamics, numerical relativity, and multimessenger astrophysics.

Topics & Concepts

Adaptive mesh refinementSolverSoftware portabilityComputational scienceComputer scienceCUDALeverage (statistics)Parallel computingFinite volume methodRobustness (evolution)ExecutableCloud computingSoftwareSupercomputerMulti-core processorTest caseCode (set theory)StencilSmoothed-particle hydrodynamicsRuntime systemCompressibilityMachine epsilonPolygon meshComputational fluid dynamicsMagnetohydrodynamicsLagrangianComputational Fluid Dynamics and AerodynamicsAstrophysics and Cosmic PhenomenaNumerical methods for differential equations
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