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ATLAS Jamboree Gives Collaborators Data Analysis Test Run

Preparation for the summer startup of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) involves more than building, commissioning, and tweaking the particle accelerator's massive detectors, magnet arrangements, and other hardware. It also includes brainpower practice for the many scientists who are expected to make sense of the LHC's end product - heaps of unprecedented data. With that goal in mind, about 50 physicists from across the country met at Brookhaven on December 17-19 to test and improve their data analysis skills as part of the BNL-ATLAS Analysis Jamboree.

Jamboree participants

"The idea is to be prepared for the real data," said Brookhaven physicist Hong Ma, who organized the jamboree along with University of Regina physicist Kamal Benslama. "But even more importantly, we want to forge a collaboration between the U.S. collaborators and BNL experts in detectors and software so that there's no barrier when analysis help is needed."

Brookhaven is the host for the more than 40 U.S. institutions contributing to ATLAS, one of the largest experiments at the LHC. Besides providing a large portion of the overall computing resources for U.S. collaborators in ATLAS, Brookhaven also is the central hub for storing and distributing ATLAS experimental data among U.S. collaborators.

The jamboree was the sixth of its kind since 2006, attracting collaborators from as far as California and as close as Stony Brook University. Through lectures and hands-on working sessions, the event focused on understanding how the analysis of initial data should be structured, and on the roles of participants.

"We want to get ready for the early physics," Ma said. "We want to be able to extract as much physics as possible, even in the early running of the LHC."

ATLAS detector under construction

Using computer-generated data for practice, the jamboree physicists' ultimate goal is to look for event "signals" that could yield evidence for long-sought physics phenomena such as the Higgs boson (the particle thought to be responsible for mass) and supersymmetry (a proposed property of the universe that requires every type of particle to have a so-called "supersymmetric" particle associated with it).

Ma said he encourages jamboree participants, whose experience levels range from novice to expert, to continue to interact with each other after returning to their home institutions.

"We take time to follow up with the participants and offer them the chance to work together afterward," he said. "I hope that these jamborees will achieve that long-term goal and make it easier for everyone once we have real data on our screens."

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One of ten national laboratories overseen and primarily funded by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Brookhaven National Laboratory conducts research in the physical, biomedical, and environmental sciences, as well as in energy technologies and national security. Brookhaven Lab also builds and operates major scientific facilities available to university, industry and government researchers. Brookhaven is operated and managed for DOE's Office of Science by Brookhaven Science Associates, a limited-liability company founded by Stony Brook University, the largest academic user of Laboratory facilities, and Battelle, a nonprofit, applied science and technology organization.

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