Advanced Optimization Techniques for Entropy-Based Moment Closures

Professor AndréTits (ECE/ISR) is the principal investigator and Professor Dianne O’Leary (CS/UMIACS) is the co-PI for a new Department of Energy grant, “Advanced Optimization Techniques for Entropy-Based Moment Closures.” The University of Maryland portion of the three-year grant is funded at $769,918, and the work is being done in collaboration with Dr. Cory Hauck of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.The research team will design and implement advanced convex optimization methods for solving entropy maximization problems. In transport and kinetic theory, solutions to these problems are used to derive closures for moment models that inherit many fundamental features of kinetic transport. Specific applications include gas dynamics, radiative transfer, charged-particle transport, and neutron transport.