VU Physicist Appointed Analysis Preservation and Open Data Coordinator for CERN’s LHCb Experiment

Dr Mindaugas Šarpis, a researcher at the Faculty of Physics of Vilnius University (VU), has been appointed as Analysis Preservation and Open Data Coordinator for the LHCb (Large Hadron Collider beauty) experiment at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN). The head of the LHCb Vilnius group will take up these duties on 1 August.

CERN continuously collects and stores vast amounts (hundreds of petabytes) of data. However, as time passes and technology evolves, it is not the data itself that becomes obsolete. Problems arise from ageing software and environments, which become difficult to adapt to new systems and modern hardware. Dr Šarpis will be responsible for preserving the methodologies used in the experimental particle-physics analysis of data collected by LHCb.

“It is not only the data itself that is important, but also the computing environment in which it is analysed. We aim to enable future researchers and students to replicate the sequence of analytical steps taken, if necessary. The computing environment consists not only of ageing files or different programming languages, but also of software, the operating system, and other important technological solutions,” emphasises Dr Šarpis.

According to him, automated processes and a dedicated environment that will emulate a computer system will be preserved, so that programs and sequences of program steps designed for another platform can be run within it.  “We will preserve automated recipes for what to do with the data collected in the LHCb experiment. This will allow us to conveniently continue or expand our analyses and, if necessary, reproduce previously obtained results, methods, or models. And by expanding the analyses – for example, with new machine-learning methods – we’ll be able to look at certain data in a new light and reinterpret it,” he says, emphasising that this matters so that thousands of analyses not only avoid becoming obsolete, but gain renewed relevance.

According to the VU physicist, the automated program will allow students, for example, to recreate on their own computers the exact same working environment that was used on a supercomputer more than ten years ago. This is important not only for scientific development and progress, but also in the context of open data, through the use of example analyses.

Dr Šarpis explains that although a major upgrade is planned for the LHCb experiment, it will be shut down around 2042, as preparations move ahead for new future experiments at the 92-kilometre Future Circular Collider (FCC). “By then, we will have collected the most important data, achieved our results, and made full use of today’s technological capabilities. Although the LHCb experiment itself will no longer be collecting data, future scientists and we will be able to analyse it for several more decades. This will remain important even as new CERN experiments begin and new data continues to be collected,” he says.

 In autumn 2024, by decision of the LHCb Collaboration Board, Vilnius University was accepted as a new institute of this prestigious experiment. The CERN LHCb experiment involves 120 research institutions from around the world, with almost 2000 scientists working on it.

This September, VU will host LHCb Week for the first time, welcoming around 600 physicists from around the world to one of the largest annual meetings of the LHCb experiment.