DEVELOPMENT OF A MULTIPLE PERTURBATION MONTE CARLO METHOD FOR EIGENVALUE PROBLEMS AND IMPLEMENTATION ON PARALLEL PROCESSORS
Amitava Majumdar
Doctor of Philosophy
Nuclear Engineering and Scientific Computing 1996
Professor William R. Martin, Chairperson
Assistant Professor James P. Holloway
Professor Edward W. Larsen
Professor John C. Lee
Professor Trevor N. Mudge

To my parents Bimal and Gouri Majumdar

I would like to thank Prof. William Martin for all the support, encouragement and knowledge that I have received from him all these years at The University of Michigan. Prof. Martin has given me freedom to pursue research (in my own little way) when I was in the right direction; he has stepped in and put me back to the right path when I was following the wrong directions. This combination of freedom and guidance is the very best support a graduate student can ever expect from his or her advisor. I will be forever grateful to Prof. Martin for everything that he has done for me.

A special thanks to Prof. John Lee. While working under him on different projects, I have learned how to do research and this experience will be most valuable to me throughout my working life. I would also like to thank Prof. Edward Larsen. Everything I know about numerical transport theory, I have learned from his excellent lectures. Thank you Prof. Larsen for giving me this rare opportunity. I thank Prof. James Holloway for always answering any question I had about academic and non-academic matters. Thanks to Prof. Trevor Mudge for being in my doctoral committee. It is a rare privilege to learn from a teacher like Prof. Ziya Akcasu - thank you Prof. Akcasu.

I am most grateful to my parents for all their support. Without their encouragement this thesis would not have existed. It is impossible to express in mere words my feelings for them. Everything that I have accomplished has been possible because of them.

I am grateful to my aunt Catherine Majumdar and uncle Debu Majumdar. They have encouraged and guided me from the very first day of my graduate student life. Without their support I would not have any graduate degree.

A very special thanks to Mieko Ueno for supporting me in her own quite way all these stressful years. She is the only person in front of whom I did not hide my stresses and tensions. Thank you for standing by me. I will be there when you receive your Ph.D.

I would like to thank late Prof. Harry Charyulu of Idaho State University. His guidance was instrumental in my graduate studies. Also thanks to Dr. Henry Makowitz and Dr. Michael Lineberry of Idaho National Engineering Laboratory; and Prof. D. T. Neil, Prof. Al. Wilson and Prof. Al Stephens of Idaho State University.

Thanks to Dr. Hal Marshall who has taught me about parallel computers and has always answered my questions. Thanks to Dr. Dave Woodcock for also helping me. I would like to thank the Center for Parallel Computing for letting me use and learn parallel computing on different parallel machines.

Thanks to several friends who have played with me, laughed with me and have taught me all the bad and good things about life. Without them life would not be fun. I would like to thank Todd Urbatsch, Djordje Tomasevic, Todd and Stephanie Wareing, Moaied Miften, Yuji Fujii and Yuni Dewaraja, Tarek Al-Nahlawi, Todd and Teri Palmer, Ayman Hawari, Siaka Yusuf, Eric Smith, Chris and Michaelle Gesh, Scott and Anna Turner, Kasem Abotel, Carol Tallman, Eric Hawkes, Peggy Jo Christenson, Marie-Anne Descalle, Hongjuan Wang, Denise Parevanti, Joe Schumer, Bob Grove, Paul Keller, Taro Ueki, Jun Miyamoto, Danny Ray Tolar, Brian Guthrie, Marc Cooper, Patricia Lopez, Ricardo de Barros, Robert Rulko, Musa Yavuz, Helen Lum, Sue Greenwood, Karen Balson, Ann Bell, Alice Cook, Diana Corey, Pam Derry and Mariann Marshall from The University of Michigan; Masanao Moriwaki and Natsuko Kodama, Norio Suzuki, Takaaki Mochida, and Konosuke Onishi from Japan; Kambiz Khosro-shahroudi, Bill Rhodes, Cindy Charyulu, PJ, Kuang Yi Chen, Xia Fang Qi and Daisy Wang from Idaho State University; Krishna Thakur, Subhasis Kabiraj, Ballal Chatterjee, Prabal Chatterjee, Pranabendu Chakrabarty, Tamal Ghosh and Shaileswar Bhattacharyaa from Calcutta; Debashasis Roy, Sarajit RoyChoudhury, Ashim Pal, Ashoke Chakraborty, Pintu Mukherjee and Sharmistha Ganguly from Durgapur; my junior high school teacher from Durgapur, Mr. Sanyal for teaching me English; my cousins Debi, Mou, Raj, Minakshi, Rajeev, Nikhil, Sharmistha, Sujata, Tata, and Krishna-da.

Watching sports outside the Nuclear Engineering Department has made my life as interesting as doing research and learning inside the department. My thanks to Fav-Five, Desmond Howard, Walter Smith, ex-Piston Isiah Thomas (for shaking my hand and waving me goodbye afterwards at the Detroit Metro airport on Jan, 5, 1996 around 2:30 PM), and all the male and female athletes and coaches of The University of Michigan.

Go blue and peace.