One fundamental sector consists of computational simulations, which permit (thanks to powerful supercomputers) the detailed recreation of the behaviour of physical systems. This is very useful, for example, for simulating “in advance” the possible results of an experiment, thus orienting the definition of experimental goals and then comparing the predictions of the simulation with actual data. In theoretical physics too, simulations are important. The theory of strong interactions, QCD, discretized on a lattice of space-timep oints, can be simulated to obtain numerical predictions of physical processes that cannot otherwise be calculated.
Another key aspect of the simulations is the capacity to explore scenarios that cannot be reproduced experimentally. A large part of research in the astrophysical field is based on simulations. These may model, for example, the evolution of galaxies across very longtime scales, enabling researchers to study processes that are otherwise impossible to directly observe. Another very important example of the use of models and simulations consists in atmospheric physics and climatology, where the integration of a vast range of atmospheric, terrestrial, and oceanic data may make it possible to predict climate changes over time and their potential impacts on ecological and social systems.
