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Paul Laycock

Publications and source records attributed to Paul Laycock.

14 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2025

JENA Computing Initiative WP2 Report: Software and Heterogeneous Architectures

The scientific communities of nuclear, particle, and astroparticle physics are continuing to advance and are facing unprecedented software challenges due to growing data volumes, complex computing needs, and environmental considerations. As new experiments emerge, software and computing needs must be recognised and integrated early in design phases. This document synthesises insights from ECFA, NuPECC and APPEC, representing particle physics, nuclear physics, and astroparticle physics, and presents collaborative strategies for improving software, computing frameworks, infrastructure, and career development within these fields.

physics.comp-ph↗
arXiv2024

The HSF Conditions Database Reference Implementation

Conditions data is the subset of non-event data that is necessary to process event data. It poses a unique set of challenges, namely a heterogeneous structure and high access rates by distributed computing. The HSF Conditions Databases activity is a forum for cross-experiment discussions inviting as broad a participation as possible. It grew out of the HSF Community White Paper work to study conditions data access, where experts from ATLAS, Belle II, and CMS converged on a common language and proposed a schema that represents best practice. Following discussions with a broader community, including NP as well as HEP experiments, a core set of use cases, functionality and behaviour was defined with the aim to describe a core conditions database API. This paper will describe the reference implementation of both the conditions database service and the client which together encapsulate HSF best practice conditions data handling. Django was chosen for the service implementation, which uses an ORM instead of the direct use of SQL for all but one method. The simple relational database schema to organise conditions data is implemented in PostgreSQL. The task of storing conditions data payloads themselves is outsourced to any POSIX-compliant filesystem, allowing for transparent relocation and redundancy. Crucially this design provides a clear separation between retrieving the metadata describing which conditions data are needed for a data processing job, and retrieving the actual payloads from storage. The service deployment using Helm on OKD will be described together with scaling tests and operations experience from the sPHENIX experiment running more than 25k cores at BNL.

cs.DB↗
arXiv2023

Computing Challenges for the Einstein Telescope project

The discovery of gravitational waves, first observed in September 2015 following the merger of a binary black hole system, has already revolutionised our understanding of the Universe. This was further enhanced in August 2017, when the coalescence of a binary neutron star system was observed both with gravitational waves and a variety of electromagnetic counterparts; this joint observation marked the beginning of gravitational multimessenger astronomy. The Einstein Telescope, a proposed next-generation ground-based gravitational-wave observatory, will dramatically increase the sensitivity to sources: the number of observations of gravitational waves is expected to increase from roughly 100 per year to roughly 100'000 per year, and signals may be visible for hours at a time, given the low frequency cutoff of the planned instrument. This increase in the number of observed events, and the duration with which they are observed, is hugely beneficial to the scientific goals of the community but poses a number of significant computing challenges. Moreover, the currently used computing algorithms do not scale to this new environment, both in terms of the amount of resources required and the speed with which each signal must be characterised. This contribution will discuss the Einstein Telescope's computing challenges, and the activities that are underway to prepare for them. Available computing resources and technologies will greatly evolve in the years ahead, and those working to develop the Einstein Telescope data analysis algorithms will need to take this into account. It will also be important to factor into the initial development of the experiment's computing model the availability of huge parallel HPC systems and ubiquitous Cloud computing; the design of the model will also, for the first time, include the environmental impact as one of the optimisation metrics.

gr-qc↗
arXiv2022

Second Analysis Ecosystem Workshop Report

The second workshop on the HEP Analysis Ecosystem took place 23-25 May 2022 at IJCLab in Orsay, to look at progress and continuing challenges in scaling up HEP analysis to meet the needs of HL-LHC and DUNE, as well as the very pressing needs of LHC Run 3 analysis. The workshop was themed around six particular topics, which were felt to capture key questions, opportunities and challenges. Each topic arranged a plenary session introduction, often with speakers summarising the state-of-the art and the next steps for analysis. This was then followed by parallel sessions, which were much more discussion focused, and where attendees could grapple with the challenges and propose solutions that could be tried. Where there was significant overlap between topics, a joint discussion between them was arranged. In the weeks following the workshop the session conveners wrote this document, which is a summary of the main discussions, the key points raised and the conclusions and outcomes. The document was circulated amongst the participants for comments before being finalised here.

hep-ex↗
arXiv2022

Particle Physics Outreach at Non-traditional Venues

Since 2016 the group known as `The Big Bang Collective' has brought High Energy Physics outreach to music and culture festivals across Europe, successfully engaging with and inspiring audiences who may never have sought this out themselves through activities in their `Physics Pavilions'. The US has a very long, glorious tradition of music festivals, and an incredible community of sci-comm engaged physicists, from students to senior staff. With the experience already gained in Europe, The Big Bang Collective believes the time is now ripe to bring their Physics Pavilions to US music festivals.

physics.ed-ph↗
arXiv2022

HEP computing collaborations for the challenges of the next decade

Large High Energy Physics (HEP) experiments adopted a distributed computing model more than a decade ago. WLCG, the global computing infrastructure for LHC, in partnership with the US Open Science Grid, has achieved data management at the many-hundred-Petabyte scale, and provides access to the entire community in a manner that is largely transparent to the end users. The main computing challenge of the next decade for the LHC experiments is presented by the HL-LHC program. Other large HEP experiments, such as DUNE and Belle II, have large-scale computing needs and afford opportunities for collaboration on the same timescale. Many of the computing facilities supporting HEP experiments are shared and face common challenges, and the same is true for software libraries and services. The LHC experiments and their WLCG- partners, DUNE and Belle II, are now collaborating to evolve the computing infrastructure and services for their future needs, facilitated by the WLCG organization, OSG, the HEP Software Foundation and development projects such as HEP-CCE, IRIS-HEP and SWIFT-HEP. In this paper we outline the strategy by which the international HEP computing infrastructure, software and services should evolve through the collaboration of large and smaller scale HEP experiments, while respecting the specific needs of each community. We also highlight how the same infrastructure would be a benefit for other sciences, sharing similar needs with HEP. This proposal is in line with the OSG/WLCG strategy for addressing computing for HL-LHC and is aligned with European and other international strategies in computing for large scale science. The European Strategy for Particle Physics in 2020 agreed to the principles laid out above, in its final report.

physics.comp-ph↗
arXiv2020

HL-LHC Computing Review: Common Tools and Community Software

Common and community software packages, such as ROOT, Geant4 and event generators have been a key part of the LHC's success so far and continued development and optimisation will be critical in the future. The challenges are driven by an ambitious physics programme, notably the LHC accelerator upgrade to high-luminosity, HL-LHC, and the corresponding detector upgrades of ATLAS and CMS. In this document we address the issues for software that is used in multiple experiments (usually even more widely than ATLAS and CMS) and maintained by teams of developers who are either not linked to a particular experiment or who contribute to common software within the context of their experiment activity. We also give space to general considerations for future software and projects that tackle upcoming challenges, no matter who writes it, which is an area where community convergence on best practice is extremely useful.

physics.comp-ph↗
arXiv2019

HEP Software Foundation Community White Paper Working Group -- Conditions Data

To produce the best physics results, high energy physics experiments require access to calibration and other non-event data during event data processing. These conditions data are typically stored in databases that provide versioning functionality, allowing physicists to make improvements while simultaneously guaranteeing the reproducibility of their results. With the increased complexity of modern experiments, and the evolution of computing models that demand large scale access to conditions data, the solutions for managing this access have evolved over time. In this white paper we give an overview of the conditions data access problem, present convergence on a common solution and present some considerations for the future.

physics.comp-ph↗
arXiv2012

QCD and low-x physics at a Large Hadron electron Collider

The Large Hadron electron Collider (LHeC) is a proposed facility which will exploit the new world of energy and intensity offered by the LHC for electron-proton scattering, through the addition of a new electron accelerator. This contribution, which is derived from the draft CERN-ECFA-NuPECC Conceptual Design report (due for release in 2012), addresses the expected impact of the LHeC precision and extended kinematic range for low Bjorken-x and diffractive physics, and detailed simulation studies and prospects for high precision QCD and electroweak fits. Numerous observables which are sensitive to the expected low-x saturation of the parton densities are explored. These include the inclusive electron-proton scattering cross section and the related structure functions $F_2$ and $F_L$, as well as exclusive processes such as deeply-virtual Compton scattering and quasi-elastic heavy vector meson production and diffractive virtual photon dissociation. With a hundred times the luminosity that was achieved at HERA, salient expectations for the LHeC include the complete determination of all light and heavy quark parton distributions for the first time, the high precision extraction of the gluon density, the determination of the strong coupling constant to per-mil accuracy and the precision study of the running of the electroweak mixing angle.

hep-ex↗
arXiv2012

Diffractive Structure Functions with H1

H1 has measured the diffractive DIS cross section $ep \rightarrow eXY$ using data from both of the HERA data-taking periods. Using new measurements of the diffractive cross section at different centre-of-mass energies, the diffractive longitudinal structure function $F_L^D$ has been extracted. The results are in agreement with NLO QCD predictions based on fits to inclusive data. New high statistics measurements of the diffractive reduced cross section $σ_r^D$ have been made using two experimental methods covering the accessible kinematic range. This precise dataset agrees well with QCD-based predictions.

hep-ex↗
arXiv2012

10 Years of Object-Oriented Analysis on H1

Over a decade ago, the H1 Collaboration decided to embrace the object-oriented paradigm and completely redesign its data analysis model and data storage format. The event data model, based on the RooT framework, consists of three layers - tracks and calorimeter clusters, identified particles and finally event summary data - with a singleton class providing unified access. This original solution was then augmented with a fourth layer containing user-defined objects. This contribution will summarise the history of the solutions used, from modifications to the original design, to the evolution of the high-level end-user analysis object framework which is used by H1 today. Several important issues are addressed - the portability of expert knowledge to increase the efficiency of data analysis, the flexibility of the framework to incorporate new analyses, the performance and ease of use, and lessons learned for future projects.

physics.data-an↗
arXiv2009

Diffraction at H1 and Zeus

The H1 and Zeus collaborations have measured the inclusive diffractive DIS cross section ep -> eXp and these measurements are in good agreement within a normalisation uncertainty. Diffractive parton density functions (DPDFs) have been extracted from NLO QCD fits to these data and the predictions of these DPDFs compare well with measurements of diffractive dijets in DIS, proving the validity of the factorisation approximations used in their extraction. The inclusive and dijet data are then used in a combined fit to constrain the diffractive singlet and gluon with good precision over the full phase space. The predictions of DPDFs are compared to diffractive dijets in photoproduction where the issue of survival probability in a hadron-hadron environment can be studied. Finally, exclusive diffractive vector meson production and deeply virtual Compton scattering have also been studied; the results compare reasonably well with the expectations of QCD and in particular with GPD models.

hep-ex↗
arXiv2008

Inclusive Diffraction at HERA

The H1 and Zeus collaborations have measured the inclusive diffractive DIS cross section ep -> eXp and these measurements are in good agreement within a normalisation uncertainty. Diffractive parton density functions (DPDFs) have been extracted from NLO QCD fits to inclusive measurements of diffractive DIS and the predictions of these DPDFs are compared with measurements of diffractive dijets in DIS, testing the validity of the factorisation approximations used in their extraction. H1 then use these diffractive dijets in DIS data to provide further constraints in a combined QCD fit, resulting in the next generation of DPDFs which have constrained the diffractive gluon at large momentum fractions. Finally, the predictions of DPDFs are compared to diffractive dijets in photoproduction where the issue of survival probability in a hadron-hadron environment can be studied.

hep-ex↗