Earlier this month, one of two prototype detectors for the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, (DUNE), saw its first particle tracks. It was a major milestone for the ProtoDUNE detector, as it’s called, which is located at CERN. Capturing the tracks of particles that pass through the detector’s time projection chamber — the part of the detector that contains the liquid argon detection material — is a successful demonstration of the detector technology.
It’s also a testament to the world-class computing resources and expertise at Fermilab and CERN.
The ProtoDUNE experiments present a set of unique computing challenges for both laboratories. Even though the ProtoDUNE time projection chambers are small compared to the planned DUNE far detectors, the data volume that these detectors produce are similar in size to what is coming out of the largest LHC experiments.
With the appearance of the first tracks in the detector, this flood of data has begun. Over the next three months, scientists plan to run the detectors to take over 6 petabytes of data. Extrapolate those rates over the course of a year, and the numbers are breathtaking.
Over the past year, Fermilab and CERN have engaged in a joint venture to stand up a system that allows both labs to effectively host and process all of this information coming off the detector. The beginning of data taking is a triumph for the computing teams involved because they have worked together at every stage of the data’s life cycle, from acquisition, to storage, to processing and analysis. They have produced a system that provides transparent access to the data for all the DUNE scientists, regardless of where they are in the world. This has allowed contributions to the computing to come from multiple international facilities, including the GridPP collaboration, based in Great Britain, the National Institute of Nuclear and Particle Physics (IN2P3), based in France, and many universities throughout the United States and Europe.
This image shows one of the first cosmic muon particle tracks recorded by the ProtoDUNE detector at CERN. Fermilab’s computing teams made significant contributions to this important milestone. Image: DUNE collaboration.
The role of the Fermilab Scientific Computing Division (SCD) has been to ensure that all of this computing worked flawlessly from day one so that, once the ProtoDUNE detector was turned on, scientists would be able to access, analyze and look at what was happening in the detector. This required real expertise, to research and find solutions to the problem and to coordinate between the various labs and organizations. Three members of SCD in particular — Igor Mandrichenko, Steve Timm and Ken Herner, each representing expertise in our abilities to record accelerator beam data, manage large-scale data sets and conduct large-scale processing and reconstruction — were at CERN as the detector was turned on, filled with liquid argon and ran its first tracks. These individuals were able to work on the ground with the CERN team and work out the final details as they arose, then and there.
Many other individuals and groups across SCD directly contributed to this effort and share in its success. These teams accomplished amazing things to ensure that the software, hardware and processes would work as expected for everything from the lowest levels of the data acquisition to the final stages of data processing. Even the brand new mass storage tape libraries, which were brought online in August, have been tasked immediately with storing ProtoDUNE data.
These efforts are vital to the success of DUNE. There is a very limited window of time that beam will be available at CERN before the start of a two-year shutdown. This time-critical work and the data from the detectors are needed to inform us whether this technology would work at full scale for DUNE. Lessons learned and data on detector performance will directly shape the design of the detector and will be put directly in the experiment’s technical design report.
Congratulations to all in SCD for this success.
Panagiotis Spentzouris is the head of Fermilab’s Scientific Computing Division.
Saskia Charity is a postdoc on the Muon g-2 experiment. Photo: Reidar Hahn
How long will you be at Fermilab?
I just started a postdoc appointment, so I will be here for three years, potentially longer. I did my Ph.D. at the University of Liverpool and was here for a year last year working on the Muon g-2 experiment for my thesis.
What is your role in Muon g-2?
Muon g-2 is an experiment to measure properties of muons. We are particularly measuring something called its magnetic moment. We measure it by injecting a beam of muons into a big magnet. I work on the team that helps store the muon beam inside the magnet. Half the time I’m working on hardware things, and half the time I’m doing data analysis.
What intrigues you about muons and Muon g-2?
The reason Muon g-2 is so exciting is that it is a really niche way to try to answer some key questions in particle physics. The muon in particular is really exciting because it can tell scientists if there are new, as yet unobserved, particles and forces that exist in nature.
To me, the experiment seems like a really different way of approaching this question. Instead of doing something speculative, where you are trying to find a hint of something new by measuring loads of different things, we are trying to measure just one number really accurately and test it against an equally accurate prediction.
What is the most exciting part about working on Muon g-2?
The measurement is exciting in itself. It is also nice working with a lot of other people who are already interested in the work. I think, in a lot of jobs, you might be really interested in what you are doing, but it’s hard to convince other people that what you are doing is exciting. As part of Muon g-2, when I’m in the experiment, our meetings may be about how to get this particular capacitor we need, but everyone is still very motivated and focused on the same end goal. I think that’s the best thing about it.
What about your current work at Fermilab differs from your previous Ph.D. work?
Oh, so many things. I used to work on the tracking detectors, but now I work on a completely different system, the kicker, which forces the muons onto their correct path inside the large, magnetic ring. I’m still working on hardware and data analysis, but now I get to work on some electronics, readout systems and build circuit boards too. It is just completely new.
During my Ph.D., I did hands-on work, too, but I was a student, so there were other people deciding what to do. But now it’s like, “Great! Get this data acquisition system to work.” That is definitely new to me.
What do you enjoy outside of work?
I really like soccer, but only watching it. Everyone knows that because the World Cup just happened, and I was very vocal about supporting England. I also like swimming and playing the piano.
What do you enjoy about Fermilab?
I like loads of things about it, which is why I wanted to stay here. It’s such a beautiful place to work, and I like seeing all the animals on site. I had never seen a bison before I came here.
Sometimes I try to run around the site, but usually it turns into more like walking around the site.
Note: A version of this release was issued earlier today by the U.S. Department of Energy.
Field will shape future of information processing
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $218 million in funding for 85 research awards in the important emerging field of quantum information science (QIS). The awards were made in conjunction with the White House Summit on Advancing American Leadership in QIS, highlighting the high priority that the administration places on advancing this multidisciplinary area of research, which is expected to lay the foundation for the next generation of computing and information processing as well as an array of other innovative technologies.
“QIS represents the next frontier in the Information Age,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry. “At a time of fierce international competition, these investments will ensure sustained American leadership in a field likely to shape the long-term future of information processing and yield multiple new technologies that benefit our economy and society.”
The awards are led by scientists at 28 institutions of higher learning across the nation and nine DOE national laboratories and cover a range of topics from developing hardware and software for a new generation of quantum computers, to the synthesis and characterization of new materials with special quantum properties, to probing the ways in which quantum computing and information processing provide insights into such cosmic phenomena as dark matter and black holes.
Research is expected to bear fruit over the long run in many potential new applications. It is known that quantum computers — once fully mature systems are developed and deployed — will be capable of solving certain large, extremely complex problems that lie entirely beyond the capacity of even today’s most powerful supercomputers.
In addition, among other applications, quantum systems hold out promise as potentially exquisitely sensitive sensors, with a variety of possible medical, national security, and scientific applications down the road.
Quantum computing is also almost certainly destined to revolutionize the field of encryption, a critical capability in an era when cybersecurity remains an overarching concern.
Three major program offices within the Department’s Office of Science — Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) , and High Energy Physics (HEP) — participated in the initiative and are separately administering the awards, which were made on the basis of competitive peer review.
ASCR awards were made under a funding opportunity announcement and three laboratory announcements to be found here, here and here; a list of ASCR awards can be found here.
BES awards were made under a funding opportunity announcement and a laboratory announcement; a list of BES awards can be found here.
HEP awards were also made under funding opportunity announcement and a laboratory announcement; a list of HEP awards can be found here.
Depending on the topic and program, awards range in duration from two to five years. Total funding for fiscal year 2018 will be $73 million, with outyear funding contingent on congressional appropriations.