Jiskefet, a bookkeeping application for ALICE

A new bookkeeping system called Jiskefet is being developed for A Large Ion Collider Experiment (ALICE) during Long Shutdown 2, to be in production until the end of LHC Run 4 (2029). Jiskefet unifies two functionalities: a) gathering, storing and presenting metadata associated with the operations of the ALICE experiment and b) tracking the asynchronous processing of the physics data. It will replace the existing ALICE Electronic Logbook and AliMonitor, allowing for a technology refresh and the inclusion of new features based on the experience collected during Run 1 and Run 2. The front end leverages web technologies much in use nowadays such as TypeScript and NodeJS and is adaptive to various clients such as tablets, mobile devices and other screens. The back end includes an OpenAPI specification based REST API and a relational database. This paper will describe the organization of the work done by various student teams who work on Jiskefet in sequential and parallel semesters and how continuity is guaranteed by using guidelines on coding, documentation and development. It will also describe the current status of the development, the initial experience in detector stand-alone commissioning setups and the future plans.

Development of scintillation detectors with SiPM readout for the NICA project

Scintillation detectors with SiPM readout are developed for trigger systems and neutron time-of-flight measurements in the framework of the NICA project at JINR. Some detectors are operated in a strong magnetic field of the BM@N and MPD setups. New projects of detectors with picosecond time resolution for trigger of nucleus–nucleus collisions in collider experiment and neutron time-of-flight measurements are discussed.

Prediction of Weinberg Angle in Discretized Kaluza-Klein Theory

In Discretized Kaluza-Klein theory (DKKT) the gauge fields emerge as components of gravity with a single coupling constant. Therefore, it provide a new approach to fix the parameters of the Standard Model, and in particular the Weinberg angle. We show that in our approach using DKKT, the predicted value of Weinberg angle is exactly the one measured in the electron-positron collider experiment at Q = 91.2 GeV/c. The result is compared with the one predicted the group theoretic methods.

Readout Software for the Alice Integrated Online-Offline (O2) System

ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) is a heavy -ion detector studying the physics of strongly interacting matter and the quarkgluon plasma at CERN’s LHC (Large Hadron Collider). During the second long shutdown of the LHC, the ALICE detector will be upgraded to cope with an interaction rate of 50 kHz in Pb–Pb collisions, producing in the online computing system (O2) a sustained input throughput of 3 TB/s. The readout software is in charge of the first step of data-acquisition, handling the data transferred from over 8000 detector links to PC memory by dedicated PCI boards, formatting and buffering incoming traffic until sent to the next components in the processing pipeline. On the 250 readout nodes where it runs, the software has to sustain a throughput which can locally exceed 100 Gb/s. We present the modular design used to cope with various data sources (hardware devices and software emulators), integrated with the central O2 components (logging, configuration, monitoring, data sampling, transport) and initiating the online data flow using the standard O2 messaging system. Performance considerations and measurements are also discussed.