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Cern: A Scientifc Odyssey to discover the origin of the universe

Grid Technology comes to help handling information

In 2004, the larger worldwide particle physique laboratory – CERN, in Switzerland – completes 50 years. In a way to find responses to the fundamental questions of the nature, international physicists have been working together since 1954, in a cooperative way that requires advanced technology of data communication and sharing. Globally there are 56 international physicists.

Using a kind of a “time tunnel” the physicists simulate a voyage to a fraction of second after the “Big Bang”, the great explosion that created our universe, according to one of the physique theories. The “time tunnel” here is a particle accelerator: a structure that makes possible to provoke crashes among the particles that compose the matter and separate them, as they were after the “Big Bang”. Using detection devices the researchers can see what happens after the crashes and, with that, they can study the matter structure.

In 2007 a new accelerator will be started: the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which is being built in a 27-km subterranean tunnel. The LHC will have four detection devices: Atlas, Compact Muon Solenaid (CMS), LHCb and A Large Ion Collider Experiment (Alice). The first three detection devices have a Brazilian participation.

With the use of the LHC device the researchers expect to find the necessary responses to complete the Standard Template, it means, the puzzle that has been created by the physicists to explain the universe origin.

Grid Network is the solution to handle information generated by LHC

The expected volume of data gathered by LHC during a year is 20 petabytes (20,000 terabytes). According to professor Alberto Santoro (Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro - UERJ), who is coordinating the Brazilian society linked to CMS, one of the most difficult tasks that the group will have to face is to find a way to handle such volume of scientific data. UNESP, USP, UFRS, UFRJ, CBPF and UFBA also participate of this society, working with 1,840 scientist of 150 institutions from 30 countries. UERJ will be responsible by storing a part of this information, which will be distributed using Grid technology. To make possible this project it is necessary that the UERJ net be easily accessible to all CERN physicists around the world – at this moment the available connectivity is not enough. “The idea is to start with 622 Mbps and to grow up to 10 Gbps in 2007, year of the LHC startup”, explains Santoro.

Talking about the great amount of necessary technological requirements to develop advanced information systems, mainly in the case of Grid project, Santoro mentions the important role of RNP in the Brazilian participation during the project:

“Without RNP providing all necessary network structure there is no international cooperation projects that Brazil can participate on. Besides the great information exchange, essential to projects of this nature, there are another applications, such as videoconference, that are only possible through advanced research networks dedicated to the international academic community”, says Santoro.

[RNP, 05.11.2004]