Glossary

A significant amount of jargon and acronyms are used in presentations and discussions about the IRIS-HEP software institution, the Large Hadron Collider program at CERN and HEP in general. This glossary attempts to provide some light on what these terms and acronyms mean. (See also the list of Related Projects for additional acronyms/names and explanations.)

  • ACAT - The Advanced Computing and Analysis Techniques in Physics Research (ACAT) workshop series is an important venue for discussing HEP software and computing topics. It takes place approximately every 18 months, out of phase by approximately 9 months with the CHEP confernences.

  • ANL - Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) is a multipurpose DOE national laboratory located in Lemont, IL

  • AS - Analysis Systems, one of the R&D focus areas of the IRIS-HEP Software Institute

  • ATLAS - A Toroidal LHC ApparatuS (ATLAS) is one of two large general-purpose detectors at the LHC

  • Blueprint - The Blueprint activity in the IRIS-HEP Software Institute is designed to inform the strategic vision of the institute through dedicated workshops on topics of interest to the institute’s mission.

  • BoF - “Birds of a Feather” sessions at a conference are informal (typically parallel, ad-hoc) sessions at a conference or workshop where interested parties get together to discuss some specific common topic of interest

  • CERN - the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, located in Geneva, Switzerland

  • CHEP - The Computing in High Energy and Nuclear Physics (CHEP) conference is the main conference in which software and computing topics relevant for HEP are discussed. It takes place approximately every 18 months, out of phase by approximately 9 months with the ACAT workshop series.

  • CMS - The Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) is one of two large general-purpose detectors at the LHC

  • CTDR - Computing Technical Design Report, a technical planning document required by CERN from each of the experiments (ATLAS and CMS) in ~2022 to describe the computing plans and model for the HL-LHC upgrades

  • dHTC or DHTC - distributed high throughput computing

  • DOMA - Data Organization, Management and Access, one of the R&D focus areas of the IRIS-HEP Software Institute

  • DUNE - The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment is the U.S. future flagship neutrino experiment at FNAL.

  • FNAL or Fermilab - The main single-purpose U.S. DOE High Energy Physics laboratory, located in Batavia, IL.

  • HEP - High Energy Physics

  • HSF - HEP Software Foundation

  • IA - Innovative Algorithms, one of the R&D focus areas of the IRIS-HEP Software Institute

  • JLAB - Jefferson Lab (JLAB) is a DOE national laboratory focused on nuclear physics located in Newport News, VA

  • LBNL or Berkeley Lab - Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) is a multipurpose DOE national laboratory located in Berkeley, CA

  • LHC - Large Hadron Collider, the proton-proton collider at CERN

  • LHCb - The Large Hadron Collider Beauty experiment is a particle physics detector at the LHC specialized for studies in b-physics, charm physics, etc.

  • OSG - The Open Science Grid, which provides the fabric for distributed high-through computing

  • OSG-LHC - The services provided by IRIS-HEP to enable the LHC experiments to use the Open Science Grid

  • Operations Programs or Ops Programs -

  • PEP - Project Execution Plan

  • Pileup - the number of simultaneous proton-proton collisions visible in the detector as part of an “event”. Typically the vast majority of these are not interesting, but because they may be”overlaid” on an interesting signal collision they complicate the processing and analysis of the data. The HL-LHC will achieve higher “luminosity” (higher data rates) in a way that significantly increases “pileup”.

  • PTC - Programmatic Terms and Conditions, a document included in the IRIS-HEP award which includes agreements between NSF and Princeton University (and by extension the other institutions) as to how the IRIS-HEP project should be executed, how reporting should be done, etc.

  • Run 3 -

  • Run 4 or HL-LHC - The LHC running period which nominally starts from 2026, with the upgraded high luminosity LHC and upgraded ATLAS and CMS detectors

  • S2I2-HEP - The original conceptualization project for the software institute. It produced both the S2I2-HEP Strategic Plan and (working with the HEP Software Foundation) drove the Community White Paper process.

  • Snowmass - The Snowmass process is a high energy physics community planning process organized by the Division of Particles and Fields of the American Physical Society. The last such process took place in 2012-2013 and a new one is being planned for 2020-2021.

  • SSC - The Sustainable Software Core is a functional area in the IRIS-HEP institute which focuses on general methods for producing and maintaining sustainable software.

  • SSL - The Scalable Systems Laboratory provides an integration path for the output of IRIS-HEP R&D to be integrated into the production infrastructure of the LHC experiments.

  • TEO - Training, Education and Outreach, one of the main focuses of the SSC area in the IRIS-HEP institute

  • US-CMS

  • US-ATLAS - refers to either the

  • US-LHC Ops or US-LHC Operations Programs - refers to the two

  • WLCG - The Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG) is a federation of national grid infrastructures to support research at the LHC