Support for Access to High Energy Physics Facilities

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Experimental high-energy physics is almost entirely carried out by large international collaborations based at a very few facilities located around the world. The University of Toronto is currently involved in two of the most high-profile new experiments in the world, the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider, which will study physics at an entirely new energy scale, and the T2K experiment in Japan, which will provide precision measurements in the neutrino sector of the Standard Model. Additionally, we are involved with R&D related to future accelerators, with research on the design, construction and testing of superconducting RF cavities for an electron linear accelerator. The infrastructure needed to maintain both existing and future research efforts is substantial. For instance, the large volumes of data that will be produced by the LHC experiments have lead to a grid computing model in which data will be distributed amongst computer centres around the world. These centres are of different sizes, referred to as Tier-0 (at CERN), Tier-1 (there are 10 around the world, with one located at TRIUMF), Tier-2 and Tier-3. There will be two Tier-2 centres in Canada, with the largest situated mainly at the University of Toronto, as part of the SciNet computing facilities funded through the CFI. The purchase and installation of this facility is now in progress. However, for some years we have had a 500-cpu Linux cluster financed in a previous CFI competition, and since 2004 we have employed an MFA-funded person responsible for managing the scientific use of this cluster, in support of the various experimental groups. This person has played a key role in the design of the SciNet facility, and is expect to continue this level of involvement. Additionally we currently support a High-Energy Physics Engineer, who has played key roles in the group's hardware contributions to both ATLAS and T2K. His expertise will be needed during at least the initial T2K running, and access to his skills also forms an important part of our plans for R&D on ATLAS upgrades and superconducting RF cavities. In addition, reinstating an Instrumentation Technologist position is crucial to the continuation of our work in these fields.