GridPP: development of the UK computing Grid for particle physics

Abstract

The GridPP Collaboration is building a UK computing Grid for particle physics, as part of the international effort towards computing for the Large Hadron Collider. The project, funded by the UK Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC), began in September 2001 and completed its first phase 3 years later. GridPP is a collaboration of approximately 100 researchers in 19 UK university particle physics groups, the Council for the Central Laboratory of the Research Councils and CERN, reflecting the strategic importance of the project. In collaboration with other European and US efforts, the first phase of the project demonstrated the feasibility of developing, deploying and operating a Grid-based computing system to meet the UK needs of the Large Hadron Collider experiments. This note describes the work undertaken to achieve this goal. S Supplementary documentation is available from stacks.iop.org/JPhysG/32/N1. References to sections S1, S2.1, etc are to sections within this online supplement.

Search for magnetic monopoles with the MoEDAL forward trapping detector in 2.11 fb−1 of 13 TeV proton–proton collisions at the LHC

“…We would like to acknowledge Wendy Taylor for her invaluable input on the modelling of β-dependent couplings of magnetic monopoles. Computing support was provided by the GridPP Collaboration [44,45], in particular from the Queen Mary University of London and Liverpool grid sites. This work was supported by grant PP00P2 150583 of the Swiss National Science Foundation; by the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), via the research grants ST/L000326/1, ST/L00044X/1, ST/N00101X/1 and ST/P000258/1; by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competi-…”

Processing LHC data in the UK

“…As such, ATLAS and CMS share a number of features, including their computing model. CMS computing centres include: — seven Tier-1 sites, which provide resources for long-term archival storage, re-reconstruction and skimming; in the UK, this is hosted by the RAL [5]; and— approximately 50 Tier-2 sites, which provide resources for user analysis and MC simulation; the Tier-2s in the UK are located in London [5] at Brunel University and Imperial College London, at the University of Bristol and at the particle physics group at RAL [5]. …”

“…— seven Tier-1 sites, which provide resources for long-term archival storage, re-reconstruction and skimming; in the UK, this is hosted by the RAL [5]; and…”

“…— approximately 50 Tier-2 sites, which provide resources for user analysis and MC simulation; the Tier-2s in the UK are located in London [5] at Brunel University and Imperial College London, at the University of Bristol and at the particle physics group at RAL [5]. …”

GridPP: the UK grid for particle physics

“…The initial concept was first taken through a prototype stage in 2001-2004(Faulkner et al 2006) and this was then followed by building a production-scale grid during [2004][2005][2006][2007][2008]. With the start of LHC commissioning in 2008, the project has just entered its exploitation phase.…”