Bio

Nataliia Kovalchuk, a PhD student at the University of Hamburg, Germany, is doing a research study in high-energy physics, analyzing experimental data recorded by the CMS detector at the Large Hadron Collier (LHC), CERN. Taking into account the fact that Wolfram technology is widely used in theoretical physics, Nataliia’s key interest is to come up with a project that uses the advantages of Mathematica for analyzing experimental physics data.

Project: LHC Data Exploration Using the Wolfram Language

Goal of the project:

To write functionality that extracts and analyzes the experimental data recorded by the CMS experiment during proton-proton (pp) collision at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

Summary of work:

First steps in analyzing the LHC data in Mathematica are performed in this work. The data extraction was done in two steps: (1) using CMS open software to select the sample from the primary datasets; and (2) using Mathematica to import the data from reduced root files and text files. The collision events visualization functionality was carried out in this work, and functionalities for kinematic variables calculation were written. The basic event selection was implemented, applying cuts on the variables relevant in the analysis.

Results and future work:

The functionality was successfully implemented and the data was submitted to a data repository. A better transition between Mathematica and CMS software needs to be implemented in order to access the primary data easily and faster. Simulated Monte Carlo data should be used together with the real data in order to control the signal and background events. The syntax for the events selection in Mathematica needs to be simplified.