Distributed Data Analysis

Publisher Summary This chapter presents a detailed analysis of the technologies and effort required to complete a challenging data generation and analysis task for a high-energy physics experiment. Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) is a high-energy physics detector planned for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN) near Geneva, Switzerland. CMS records data from the highest-energy proton-proton collisions (“events”). Data from these collisions may shed light on many fundamental scientific issues including a definitive search for the Higgs particle and the possible origin of mass in the universe, the existence of a new fundamental symmetry of nature called “super symmetry,” and even the possible discovery of new spatial dimensions. CMS also enables to directly compare the output of simulation studies against actual data. Such comparisons provide improved detector calibrations, measurements of physical processes, and indications of possible scientific discoveries. The physics simulation software used by CMS is complicated and has evolved over years—in some cases decades—to embody a great deal of accumulated knowledge and problem-solving experience.