BCNETwork News

June 2006

Changing the Way the World Uses Supercomputers

A group of researchers from SFU, UVic, and TRIUMF are taking part in a global project, called the ATLAS Experiment, which could change the way the world uses large scale super-computing. As one of the biggest collaborative efforts ever attempted in the physical sciences, the ATLAS Experiment represents the first time that physicists from around the world have transferred data to global supercomputing sites at such high speed and volumes. Participants include 1800 physicists, 400 of whom are students, from more than 150 universities and laboratories in 35 countries.

The Exploration Continues: Why Does Matter Have Mass?

The ATLAS Experiment was designed to explore the fundamental nature of matter and some of the basic forces that form our universe. In particular, the experiment is looking for the Higgs particle, which is thought to generate the mass of elementary particles. The Higgs particle is believed to be the last missing piece in the Standard Model of physics and is speculated to explain why matter has mass.

Examining the Results on a Global Scale

The Large Hadron Collider, the most powerful accelerator ever built, is an integral component in the search for new discoveries in the head-on collisions of protons. Simulating the first split seconds after the Big Bang, collisions of such high energy generate particles that can only be seen by detectors such as ATLAS. These detectors will help to examine the results produced by the collisions and generate massive volumes of data that must be analyzed and distributed around the world over global advanced research networks.

TRIUMF Selected as One of 10 Global Collaborative Sites

TRIUMF, a Vancouver-based joint venture of several Canadian universities, will be a primary Tier 1 centre for the ATLAS experiment, and is one of only 10 such sites around the world. TRIUMF was selected because of its extensive experience in providing critical round-the clock services, its link to the international subatomic community for large-scale collaborative projects and its excellent working relationship with CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research.

With terabytes of data being generated by the ATLAS Experiment, they must be shipped to a number of sites for analysis, as no single computer is capable of handling it all. TRIUMF will act as one of the data analysis centres, storing copies of raw data. The resulting secondary data set will be distributed to a number of Tier-2 university centres around the world where physicists will extract data for further analysis.

Working Together Around the World

The large number of physicists involved in the ATLAS Experiment must be able to work together despite being thousands of miles apart, and a significant management structure is in place to ensure coordination. In Vancouver, particle physicist Mike Vetterli, from Simon Fraser University and TRIUMF, will lead the project that will connect the Vancouver laboratory with facilities around the world. For the experiment, slated to begin in late 2007 or early 2008, BCNET and CANARIE coordinated a dedicated link that transfers data between Vancouver, Toronto, New York, Amsterdam and CERN in Geneva. It presently transfers 2 x 1 gigabytes of data, but in the near future this dedicated lightpath will be able to transfer the 10 gigabytes per second that is required for TRIUMF to participate in Tier 1 of the ATLAS Experiment.

This experiment’s significance reaches far beyond particle physics and everyone involved is excited for the experiment to start collecting data. “The grid used in the ATLAS Experiment will do for large scale computing what the World Wide Web did for the global sharing of information,” Vetterli says.

T