Infrastructure and User Services
The beam energy of the LHC is increased in two phases, Phase 1 and Phase 2. Significant upgrades to the detectors are required to maintain optimal exploitation and discovery potential. Nikhef has taken up considerable commitments in these upgrades. Phase 1 upgrades have been completed. In ATLAS this concerns readout and data acquisition systems. In ALICE Nikhef contributed to the new CMOS Monolithic Active Pixel Sensor (MAPS) Inner Tracking detector. In LHCb Nikhef contributed to the micro vertex pixel detector, to the scintillating fibre tracker and to the RTA (Real Time Analysis facility). Ongoing is the Phase 2 upgrade for ATLAS, with the Inner Tracker as main remaining commitment for Nikhef. Nikhef has also contributed significantly to the computing for ALICE, ATLAS, LHCb by provisioning (as a service from the Dutch National e-Infrastructure) of about 10% of the global Tier-1 computing needs of the three experiments.
Examples/description of the type of research
The outcomes of high-energy proton-proton collisions are used to probe particle physics at the highest possible energy scales, and to challenge our best theoretical understanding of particle physics as embedded in the so-called Standard Model, either by precise studies of known processes or by direct searches for new processes not predicted by this model.
How to access the infrastructure?
An institute may enter the collaboration by signing the MoU. By fulfilling the obligations in this MoU (contributing to the experiment and paying the fees) the institute’s researchers are allowed on the author list of the common papers produced by the collaboration.
Access to the computing (data processing) infrastructure is arranged for by the worldwide LHC Computing Grid, of which NL is a part through the Dutch National eInfrastructure coordinated by SURF. As such, during periods when the LHC experiments are inactive, scientists from other disciplines can make use of the idle resources.
