Computational, Theoretical, and Experimental Research: A Comparison

[random_soldier]

Hi, I understand there is computational research as well as completely theoretical research compared to experimental research. I was curious about what they are like. Could anyone point out some good papers?

Thanks.

 

[BvU]

Google is your friend. Or did you try and are still unhappy ?

 

[Astronuc]

Hi, I understand there is computational research as well as completely theoretical research compared to experimental research. I was curious about what they are like. Could anyone point out some good papers?

Thanks.

In what discipline? Nuclear physics, astrophysics, condensed matter, materials science, mechanics of materials, electrical engineering, photonics, . . . . ?

I did what BvU did, and simply looked for Journal of Computational Physics, and even when typing in Journal of Computational, there are various journals beginning with those words, e.g., Journal of Computational Electronics (Springer), or type in Journal of Computational and Applied . . . . and see another set of journals.

There are journals in specialty fields, e.g., Journal of Nuclear Materials, that combine articles of experimental and computational efforts, since experimental results confirm computational predictions/simulations, while computational results inform experiment, and hopefully they converge.

 

[hutchphd]

A good "tell" for such articles (about subject "X") would be the form "Monte Carlo calculation of {"X"} subject to {conditions "Y"} or perhaps "Molecular Dynamics calculation of {"X"} subject to {conditions "Y"}

 

[Vanadium 50]

Google is your friend.

Yes but PF is a better friend!

 

[random_soldier]

Google is your friend. Or did you try and are still unhappy ?

I wasn't really sure what term(s) to use. I kept typing in computational research and it just showed me CS related results (not journal of computational "x" as suggested by astro and you).

Regarding my OP, I wasn't sure what details to add earlier. I think hutch and astro helped a fair bit already but to clarify further, if need be, I hope the following helps. They are my suggestions just prior to reading astro and hutch's responses but I don't think they need to change too much.

When I say computational, I mean computer simulation being the major/only component.

I was reading some papers on radiation detection as well as application of computational fluid dynamics for part of the system design within some of those papers. Those have both a computational as well as experimental component. But from what little I understand, there are papers that are purely theoretical as well as those that are purely computational. I was hoping someone could point out papers which serve as good examples of the method of doing such research. I'm not sure if the term is appropriate but I believe fully computational uses the phrase in silico, based on some of what I have heard elsewhere. Of course the only examples listed on the wikipedia page are of biology which is not quite what I am looking for but I hope it helps further describe what I mean when I say simulation.

Cosmology papers are probably an obvious example of where a lot of purely theoretical/computational research might be done but I was hoping for physically realizable studies where one could have done experimental research (battery chemistry/medical particle accelerators/etc.) but has chosen to submit simulation results only (again only if such a thing exists). If anyone is aware, they could probably give an example in the fields I mentioned (radiation detection and CFD). However, one does not need to restrict themselves to those only.

 

[hutchphd]

The term "computational physics" really covers a broad gamut, At one end are the true simulations where, for instance, each atom (or particle or small region of a field or star or galaxy) is treated individually and they are tied together dynamically and allowed to evolve in the computer. I am reminded of Conway's game of life or of dislocations in a stressed crystal or the galaxy structure. Another large use is to solve intermediate equations in a theory that have been partially digested by formal analysis but seems to be intractible.
This is a very broad and deep ocean. Choose a small piece of shoreline and wade in. Small and specific questions are the best.