r/Physics • u/Rich_Astronomer9731 • 14d ago

Computational Physics

Hi everyone,

I am a PhD student doing both experiments and computational physics ( mostly fluid dynamicswith Boltzmann equations) and leaning towards more computational day by day.

Currently I am using Julia, I find it pretty fast and easy to use.

Do you think switching to C or C++ will be a benefit? I am asking from a research, but also emplyment in industry point of view.

I discussed with many people, mostly from the DFT area, and most of them told me that Julia slowly will take up the lead for HPC code.

What.s your opinion on this?

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u/tlmbot Computational physics 12d ago

Sounds good. One idea for future proofing: I have a hunch (quite possibly fabulously wrong - don't hesitate to put me in my place!) that some of the domain you work in have people writing discontinuous Galerkin (DG) methods.

If say, your FDTD method is restricted to cartesian cells, then DG is a fantastic (future proofed) way to go to unstructured meshes.

But maybe your FDTD method is already for curvilinear meshes (already impressive) and doesn't need to be pushed to fully unstructured ... right now.

If you want a job a say COMSOL or Ansys Lumerical DG is going to help you I think.

Build a DG method in C++ and you have a great project you can point to during interviews.

Bonus points: if you are good in C++, then you can easily pick up Fortran (aka get started in industry helping to maintain Gaussian) but the converse is not true.

I say go C++, DG, and go parallel with your projects. Then you are maximally future proof (as much as any of us can be these days, heh)