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Detector commissioning, operation and data processing
Modern experimental particle physics requires the use of extremely complex detectors, readout electronics and associated services (e.g. power supply, gas, cooling and safety systems). The behavior of built detectors must be deeply understood before their data can be used to extract physics measurements. This process, called "commissioning", is performed by means of functionality tests of increasing complexity aiming at delivering a device with an understood response in its final working environment. Researchers of CP3 have been involved in the commissioning of several large-scale detectors (e.g. the CMS silicon tracker, the NA62 Gigatracker) and prototypes (e.g. the Calice detector, test-beam devices, etc.).
After commissioning, operation of a complex particle detector is only possible if tools to configure, control and monitor the entire detecting system are developed and deployed. We have experience in the development of such monitoring tools (from Detector Control and Safety to Data Quality Monitoring) and are taking an active role in day-to-day operations of detectors in our facilities and at CERN (both for technical and coordination aspects).
The operation aspect goes beyond these purely "online" aspects.
Many stages of data processing are necessary to go from the fundamental data produced by particle detectors (and their associated auxiliary systems) to a physics measurement. These are aspects that have to be handled "offline" and in some case will have an impact on online activities later on. The quality and precision of physics measurements heavily depends on the following items:
The large amount of data produced by modern high energy physics experiments as well as the complexity of the detectors require complex computing solutions (both hardware and software wise) to perform the data processing steps outlined above. For that purpose, we deployed and maintain a large-scale computing cluster.
After commissioning, operation of a complex particle detector is only possible if tools to configure, control and monitor the entire detecting system are developed and deployed. We have experience in the development of such monitoring tools (from Detector Control and Safety to Data Quality Monitoring) and are taking an active role in day-to-day operations of detectors in our facilities and at CERN (both for technical and coordination aspects).
The operation aspect goes beyond these purely "online" aspects.
Many stages of data processing are necessary to go from the fundamental data produced by particle detectors (and their associated auxiliary systems) to a physics measurement. These are aspects that have to be handled "offline" and in some case will have an impact on online activities later on. The quality and precision of physics measurements heavily depends on the following items:
- Data reconstruction methods:
They are necessary to transform the generally large amount of detector raw data into information about the identity and kinematic properties of particles.
- Calibration and alignment:
Detectors and higher level reconstructed data needs to be tuned in order to lead to accurate results.
- Trigger:
The statistics available for an offline analysis as well as the ability to estimate accurately detector acceptances, event selection inefficiencies and backgrounds depends on the quality of the experiment online event selection, called the trigger.
The large amount of data produced by modern high energy physics experiments as well as the complexity of the detectors require complex computing solutions (both hardware and software wise) to perform the data processing steps outlined above. For that purpose, we deployed and maintain a large-scale computing cluster.
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Projects
Click the title to show project description.-
The CMS silicon strip tracker is the largest device of its type ever built. There are 24244 single-sided micro-strip sensors covering an active area of 198m2.
Physics performance of the detector are being constantly assessed and optimized as new data comes.
Members of UCL are playing a major role in the understanding of the silicon strip tracker and in the maintenance and development of the local reconstruction code. -
Gigatracker is in the core of one of the spectrometers used in NA62. It's composed of three planes of silicon pixels detectors assembled in a traditional way: readout electronics bump bonded on silicon sensors. Each plane is composed by 18000 pixels 300 um x 300 um arranged in 45 columns and readout by 10 chips. The particularity of this sensor is that its timing resolution should be better than 200 ps in order to cope with high expected rate (800 MHz). Another particularity is its operation in vacuum.
CP3 is involved in several aspects in the production and operation of this detector.
1) Production of 25 GTK stations that will be used during the NA62 <latex>$K^+\to\pi^+\nu\bar{\nu}$</latex> run
2) Operation of GTK during data taking: time and spatial calibration, efficiency studies, effects of radiation, ....
3) Track candidates reconstruction, simulation.
4) Signal development of the signal in the sensor. We use both commercial programs (i.e. TCAD by Synopsys) as well as software developed by us to study the expected signal in this sensor. -
The general goal of this project is to develop muon-based radiography or tomography (“muography”), an innovative multidisciplinary approach to study large-scale natural or man-made structures, establishing a strong synergy between particle physics and other disciplines, such as geology and archaeology.
Muography is an imaging technique that relies on the measurement of the absorption of muons produced by the interactions of cosmic rays with the atmosphere.
Applications span from geophysics (the study of the interior of mountains and the remote quasi-online monitoring of active volcanoes) to archaeology and mining.
We are using the local facilities at CP3 for the development of high-resolution portable detectors based on Resistive Plate Chambers.
We also participate to the MURAVES collaboration through simulations (including the coordination of the Monte Carlo group), data-analysis developments (an example of the latter is the implementation and in-situ calibration of time-of-flight capabilities), and development of a new database.
We are part of the H2020-RIA project SilentBorder, which aims at developing new muon scanners at border controls. Our role in this project is to develop a parametric simulation and a ML-based detector optimization procedure.
We are also part of the H2020-MSCA-RISE network INTENSE where we coordinate the Muography work package, which brings together particle physicists, geophysicists, archaeologists, civil engineers and private companies for the development and exploitation of this imaging method. -
We are among the founders of MODE (Machine-learning Optimized Design of Experiments, https://mode-collaboration.github.io/), a multi-disciplinary consortium of European and American physicists and computer scientists who target the use of differentiable programming in design optimization of detectors for particle physics applications, extending from fundamental research at accelerators, in space, and in nuclear physics and neutrino facilities, to industrial applications employing the technology of radiation detection.
We aim to develop a modular, customizable, and scalable, fully differentiable pipeline for the end-to-end optimization of articulated objective functions that model in full the true goals of experimental particle physics endeavours, to ensure optimal detector performance, analysis potential, and cost-effectiveness.
The main goal of our activities is to develop an architecture that can be adapted to the above use cases but will also be customizable to any other experimental endeavour employing particle detection at its core. We welcome suggestions, as well as interest in joining our effort, by researchers focusing on use cases for which this technology can be of benefit. -
NA62 will look for rare kaon decays at SPS accelerator at CERN. A total of about $10^{12}$ kaon decays will be produced in two/three years of data taking. Even though the topology of the events is relatively simple, and the amount of information per event small, the volume of data to be stored per year will be of the order of ~1000 TB. Also, an amount of 500 TB/year is expected from simulation.
Profiting from the synergy inside CP3 in sharing computer resources our group is participating in the definition of the NA62 computing scheme. CP3 will be also one of the grid virtual organization of the experiment. -
We are involved in the activities of the btag POG (performance object group) of CMS, in release and data validation and purity measurement. We are also interested in btagging in special cases like for colinear b-jets. Furthermore, we are involved in the re-optimization and improvement of the Combined Secondary Vertex (CSV) tagger for the 2012 analyses.
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The existing UCLouvain/CP3 computing cluster has been augmented with GW-dedicated computing and storage resources. The cluster is integrated into the International Gravitational-Wave Observatory Network (IGWN) Computing Grid, leveraging on the infrastructure CP3 has in place for serving the cluster to the World LHC GRID (WLCG). The UCLouvain GW group has also taken up the responsibility of maintaining at the UCLouvain cluster a service that hosts and serves Virgo data to GW analysis codes submitted over the GRID by the entire LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA international Collaborations.
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The World LHC Computing GRID (WLCG) is the worldwide distributed computing infrastructure controlled by software middleware that allows a seamless usage of shared storage and computing resources.
About 10 PBytes of data are produced every year by the experiments running at the LHC collider. This data must be processed (iterative and refined calibration and analysis) by a large scientific community that is widely distributed geographically.
Instead of concentrating all necessary computing resources in a single location, the LHC experiments have decided to set-up a network of computing centres distributed all over the world.
The overall WLCG computing resources needed by the CMS experiment alone in 2016 amount to about 1500 kHepSpec06 of computing power, 90 PB of disk storage and 150 PB of tape storage. Working in the context of the WLCG translates into seamless access to shared computing and storage resources. End users do not need to know where their applications run. The choice is made by the underlying WLCG software on the basis of availability of resources, demands of the user application (CPU, input and output data,..) and privileges owned by the user.
Back in 2005 UCL proposed the WLCG Belgian Tier2 project that would involve the 6 Belgian Universities involved in CMS. The Tier2 project consists of contributing to the WLCG by building two computing centres, one at UCL and one at the IIHE (ULB/VUB).
The UCL site of the WLCG Belgian Tier2 is deployed in a dedicated room close to the cyclotron control room of the IRMP Institute and is currently a fully functional component of the WLCG.
The UCL Belgian Tier2 project also aims to integrate, bring on the GRID, and share resources with other scientific computing projects. The projects currently integrated in the UCL computing cluster are the following: MadGraph/MadEvent, NA62 and Cosmology.
Recent Publications
Click the title to show details.-
Vishal Kumar, Samip Basnet, Eduardo Cortina Gil, R.M.I.D. Gamage, Andrea Giammanco, Marwa Moussawi, Amrutha Samalan, Michael Tytgat, Raveendrababu Karnam, November 11, 2024
Refereed paper. [Full text] -
N. Andari (CEA, Saclay, France), L. Apolinário (LIP, Lisbon, Portugal), K. Augsten (Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic), E. Bakos (Institute if Physics Belgrade,Serbia), I. Bellafont (CELLS-ALBA, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain), L. Beresford (The University of Oxford, United Kingdom), A. Bethani (Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium), J. Beyer (DESY Hamburg, Germany), L. Bianchini (INFN Sezione di Pisa, Italy), C. Bierlich (Lund University, Sweden), B. Bilin (ULB/IIHE, Brussels, Belgium), K. L. Bjørke (University of Oslo, Norway), E. Bols (Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium), P. A. Brás (Laboratory of Instrumentation and Experimental Particle Physics, Lisbon, Portugal), L. Brenner (DESY - Deutsches Elektronen-SYnchrotron, Hamburg, Germany), E. Brondolin (CERN, Geneva, Switzerland), P. Calvo (Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas (CIEMAT), Madrid, Spain), B. Capdevila (Institut de Física d'Altes Energies, Barcelona, Spain), I. Cioara (Horia Hulubei National Institute for R&D in Physics and Nuclear Engineering, Bucharest-MG, Romania), L. N. Cojocariu (Horia Hulubei National Institute for R&D in Physics and Nuclear Engineering (IFIN-HH), Bucharest-MG, Romania), F. Collamati (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Roma, Piazzale Aldo Moro 2, Roma, Italy), A. de Wit (DESY,Hamburg, Germany), F. Dordei (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), sezione di Cagliari, Complesso Universitario di Monserrato Monserrato, Cagliari, Italy), M. Dordevic (VINCA Institute of Nuclear Sciences, University of Belgrade, Serbia), T. A. du Pree (Nikhef, National Institute of Subatomic Physics, Amsterdam, The Netherlands), L. Dufour (CERN, Geneva, Switzerland), A. Dziurda (Institute of Nuclear Physics Polish Academy of Science, Krakow, Poland), U. Einhaus (DESY, Hamburg, Germany), A. A. Elliot (Queen Mary University of London, United Kingdom), S. Esen (Nikhef, Amsterdam, Netherlands), J. Ferradas Troitino (CERN, Geneva, Switzerland), C. Franco (LIP, Lisbon, Portugal), J. García Pardiñas (Universität Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland), A. García Alonso (IFCA, Santander, Spain), A. Ghosh (Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS/IN2P3, IJCLab, Orsay, France), G. Gilles (Bergische Universität Wuppertal, Wuppertal, Germany), A. Giribono (INFN - LNF, Frascati, Italy), L. Gouskos (CERN, Geneva, Switzerland), E. Gouveia (LIP, Campus de Gualtar, Braga, Portugal), E. Graverini (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Cubotron, Lausanne, Switzerland), J. K. Heikkilä (University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland), H. N. Heracleous (CERN, Geneva, Switzerland), T. Herman (Czech Technical University in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic), N. Hermansson-Truedsson (Lund University (Currently at Universität Bern), Lund, Sweden), J. Hrtánková (Nuclear Physics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Řež, Czech Republic), P. S. Hussain (HEPHY, Wien, Austria), A. Irles (Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS/IN2P3, IJCLab, Orsay, France), H. Jansen (DESY, Hamburg, Germany), P. Kalaczynski (NCBJ, Warsaw, Poland), J. Karancsi (Institute for Nuclear Research (ATOMKI), Debrecen, Hungary), P. Kontaxakis (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece), S. Kostoglou (National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), Greece), A. Koulouris (NTU Athens, Greece), M. Koval (Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic), K. Krizkova Gajdosova (Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic), J. A. Krzysiak (IFJ PAN (Institute of Nuclear Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences), Krakow, Poland), M. Kuich (University of Warsaw, Poland), O. Lantwin (Universität Zürich, Switzerland), F. Lasagni Manghi (INFN Bologna, Italy), L. Lechner (Institute for High Energy Physics, Vienna, Austria), S. Leontsinis (University of Zurich, Switzerland), K. Lieret (Ludwig Maximilan University, Munich, Germany), A. Lobanov (Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau, France), J. M. Lorenz (LMU Muenchen, Garching, Germany), G. Luparello (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), sezione di Trieste, Italy), N. Lurkin (University of Birmingham, United Kingdom), K. H. Mankinen (Lund University, Sweden), E. Manoni (INFN Sezione di Perugia, Italy), L. Mantani (Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain la Neuve, Belgium), R. Marchevski (CERN, Geneva, Switzerland), C. Marin Benito (Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS/IN2P3, IJCLab, Orsay, France), A. Mathad (Universität Zürich, Switzerland), J. McFayden (CERN, Geneva, Switzerland), P. Milenovic (University of Belgrade, Serbia), V. Milosevic (Imperial College London, Blackett Laboratory, London, United Kingdom), D. S. Mitzel (CERN, Geneva, Switzerland), Z. Moravcová (Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Denmark), L. Moureaux (ULB, Brussels, Belgium), G. A. Mullier (Lund University, Sweden), M. E. Nelson (Stockholm University and The Oskar Klein Centre for Cosmoparticle Physics, Stockholm, Sweden), J. Ngadiuba (CERN, Geneva, Switzerland), N. Nikiforou (University of Texas at Austin, United States), M. W. OKeefe (University of Liverpool, The Oliver Lodge Laboratory, Liverpool, United Kingdom), R. Pedro (LIP, Lisbon, Portugal), J. Pekkanen (University at Buffalo, Buffalo, United States), M. Queitsch-Maitland (CERN, Geneva, Switzerland), M. P. L. P. Ramos (LIP, Campus de Gualtar, Braga, Portugal), C. Ø. Rasmussen (CERN, Geneva, Switzerland), J. Rembser (CNRS/IN2P3, Institut Polytechnique de Paris, Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau, France), E. T. J. Reynolds (University of Birmingham, United Kingdom), M. Sas (Nikhef/Utrecht University, Amsterdam, Netherlands), R. Schöfbeck (HEPHY, Vienna, Austria), M. Schenk (EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland), P. Schwendimann (Paul Scherrer Institute, Villigen PSI, Switzerland), K. Shchelina (LIP, Lisbon, Portugal), M. Shopova (Institute for Nuclear Research and Nuclear Energy (INRNE) - BAS, Sofia, Bulgaria), S. Sekmen (Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Republic of Korea), S. Spannagel (DESY, Hamburg, Germany), I. A. Sputowska (The Henryk Niewodniczański Institute of Nuclear Physics Polish Academy of Sciences, Kraków, Poland), R. Staszewski (Institute of Nuclear Physics Polish Academy of Sciences, Cracow, Poland), P. Sznajder (National Centre for Nuclear Research (NCBJ), Warsaw, Poland), A. Takacs (University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway), V. T. Tenorth (Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Heidelberg, Germany), L. Thomas (ULB, Bruxelles, Belgium), R. Torre (CERN, Geneva, Switzerland), F. Trovato (University of Sussex, Brighton, UK), M. Valente (Université de Genève, Genève, Switzerland), H. Van Haevermaet (University Of Antwerp, Antwerpen, Belgium), J. Vanek (Nuclear Physics Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences, Rez, Czech Republic), M. Verstraeten (Universiteit Antwerpen, Antwerp, Belgium), P. Verwilligen (INFN sezione di Bari, Italy), M. Verzetti (CERN, Geneva, Switzerland), V. Vislavicius (University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark), B. Vormwald (University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany), E. Vourliotis (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece), J. Walder (Lancaster University, United Kingdom), C. Wiglesworth (University of Copenhagen, Denmark), S. L. Williams (University of Cambridge, United Kingdom), A. Zaborowska (CERN, Geneva, Switzerland), D. Zanzi (CERN, Geneva, Switzerland), L. Zivkovic (Institute of Physics Belgrade, Serbia), February 27, 2020
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CMS Collaboration, June 6, 2018
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CMS Collaboration, March 26, 2017
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CMS Collaboration, December 1, 2016
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CMS Collaboration, December 1, 2015
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CMS collaboration, July 24, 2015
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Andrea Giammanco, June 9, 2014
Contribution to proceedings. [Full text] -
The CMS Collaboration, August 26, 2013
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Wolfgang Adam, J\'er\'emy Andrea, Camille Beluffi, Daniel Bloch, Adrien Caudron, Harry Cheung, Caroline Collard, Thomas Danielson, Alexis Descroix, Tristan du Pree, Juan Pablo Fernandez Ramos, Cristina Ferro, Alex Garabedian, Pablo Goldenzweig, Juan Pablo Gomez Cardona, Rebekka Hoing, Ketino Kaadze, James Keaveney, Dan Knowlton, Patricia Lobelle Pardo, Michael Maes, Sudhir Malik, Ivan Marchesini, Ernesto Migliore, Niklas Mohr, Marco Musich, Meenakshi Narain, Andrea Rizzi, Alexander Schmidt, Luca Scodellaro, Michael Segala, Pedro Silva, Thomas Speer, Alberto Traverso, Pierre Van Hove, Petra Van Mulders, Gerrit Van Onsem, Caterina Vernieri, Jesus Vizan, Roberval Walsh, Jinzhong Zhang, August 26, 2013
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Wolfgang Adam, J\'er\'emy Andrea, Camille Beluffi, Daniel Bloch, Adrien Caudron, Harry Cheung, Caroline Collard, Thomas Danielson, Alexis Descroix, Tristan du Pree, Alberto Escalante, Dinko Ferencek, Juan Pablo Fernandez Ramos, Cristina Ferro, Alex Garabedian, Pablo Goldenzweig, Juan Pablo Gomez Cardona, Rebekka Hoing, Ketino Kaadze, James Keaveney, Dan Knowlton, Patricia Lobelle Pardo, Michael Maes, Sudhir Malik, Ivan Marchesini, Ernesto Migliore, Niklas Mohr, Marco Musich, Meenakshi Narain, Andrea Rizzi, Alexander Schmidt, Luca Scodellaro, Michael Segala, Pedro Silva, Thomas Speer, Alberto Traverso, Pierre Van Hove, Petra Van Mulders, Gerrit Van Onsem, Caterina Vernieri, Jesus Vizan, Roberval Walsh, Jinzhong Zhang, August 26, 2013
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Rahmat Rahmat and Andrea Giammanco, September 28, 2012
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The CMS Collaboration, February 8, 2011
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A. Giammanco, December 31, 2010
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Loic Quertenmont, May 15, 2009
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Loic Quertenmont & Vincent Roberfroid, April 27, 2009
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A.Dierlamm, G.Dirkes, M.Fahrer, M.Frey, F.Hartmann, L.Masetti, O.Militaru, S.Youssaf Shah, R.Stringer, A.Tsirou, December 31, 2008
Contribution to proceedings. [Full text] -
The CMS Collaboration, December 11, 2008
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J.-L. Bonnet, G. Bruno, B. De Callatay, B. Florins, A. Giammanco, G. Gregoire, Th. Keutgen, D. Kcira, V. Lemaitre, D. Michotte, O. Militaru, K. Piotrzkowski, L. Quertermont, V. Roberfroid, X. Rouby, D. Teyssier et al. (>100 authors), December 10, 2008
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S. Assouak, J.-L. Bonnet, G. Bruno, B. de Callatay, S. de Visscher, D. Favart, B. Florins, E. Forton5, A. Giammanco, G. Gregoire, S. Kalinin, D. Kcira, Th. Keutgen, V. Lemaitre, D. Michotte, O. Militaru, S. Ovyn, K. Piotrzkowski, X. Rouby, D. Teyssier, O. Van der Aa et al. (> 100 authors), December 10, 2008
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A. Giammanco, November 18, 2008
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P. Demin, S. de Visscher, A. Bocci, R. Ranieri , December 31, 2006
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