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In 2009 United Arab Emirates (UAE) has engaged in an ambitious nuclear power program with the construction of four 1400 MWe pressurized water reactor units at the Barakah site. Fourteen years later, three units are in commercial operation, and the fourth one is in the final steps of commissioning. The four units will produce up to 5600 megawatts of electricity, supplying approximately 25% of the UAE's electricity requirements. To ensure in such a short period of time the building of the nuclear capabilities and support to the program, Khalifa University has been, since 2010, a key contributor to education and training activities as well as the development of R&D capabilities in the field of nuclear technology. This paper provides an overview of Khalifa University's activities implemented within the Nuclear Engineering Department, the Gulf Nuclear Energy Infrastructure Institute and the Emirates Nuclear Technology Center (ENTC). This joint Center, which embarks the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation and the Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation, is a hub that addresses the research requirements of the nuclear stakeholders for the delivery of safe and efficient nuclear energy as well as the deployment of advanced nuclear technologies in the UAE. The paper briefly describes the current research projects implemented at the ENTC and gives reference related recent publications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neutron imaging provides additional information to X-ray imaging and can be used in many applications, for example, nuclear engineering, non-industrial diagnostics and homeland security. This paper presents the latest development results of a new 3D structured pixel detector for thermal neutron detection and imaging. The device is based on Medipix/Timepix read-out chip family. The detector, without converter materials, was initially tested in the laboratory with a 241Am source, to simulate events that are induced by reaction products of active material in the silicon bulk. Thanks to the analysis of the size of event clusters and deposited energy, α particles and noise signals were discriminated. The detector was also tested with β and γ sources, to study the effect of other radiation on the device. These results can be useful as a starting point for future experiments, where a neutron source will be used, after filling the cavities with active materials, such as 6Li or 10B. In this paper, the results of the characterization and a comparison between experimental data and Monte Carlo simulations are shown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is known that the device MOSFET works as a dosimeter in radiation beams for cancer radiotherapy. Basically, the radiation beam generates defects in a way that produces in the MOSFET the variation in its threshold voltage, VT, which is proportional to the accumulated radiation dose. Recently, MOSFETs were also tested under X-ray beams commonly used in the energy range applied to medical diagnoses, which is lower energy than radiotherapy. Indeed, it was already shown that the MOSFET drain current varies with the radiation dose for energies in the range applied to diagnostic radiology. In this paper, an innovative method based on a differential amplifier circuit with two electronically matched MOSFETs is presented. Therefore, before irradiation the differential output voltage signal, Vdif = 0. Actually, it is a differential amplifier circuit with one of the MOSFETs shielded from the ionizing radiation beam. Therefore, if such a circuit is irradiated the difference between ID1 and ID2, from MOSFET1 and MOSFET2 respectively, will result Vdif ≠ 0. To evaluate the response of this electronic dosimeter it was tested under a diagnostic radiology beam typically used in clinics to take radiography of patients. The results showed that the proposed dosimeter works and varies linearly with the radiation dose. The technology developed in this paper will allow research to be carried out for optimizing such electronic dosimeter to make it a wearable device and can be able to use it by workers exposed to ionizing radiation in nuclear power plants or even in outer space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Pressurized Water Reactors (PWRs), boron10 (10B) is added to the primary fluid as boric acid to regulate criticality and power distribution within the core. Indeed, 10B possesses a significant neutron absorption cross-section of approximately 3845 barns for thermal neutron energy (around 25.3 meV). Thus, under certain circumstances, even a slight variation in boron concentration could lead to criticality issues. This paper addresses the problems regarding the accuracy and real-time measurement of Boron Concentration Online Monitoring Systems (BCOMS) in PWRs. First, the paper focuses on presenting BCOMS's key performance and qualification criteria to ensure a real-time, accurate response during normal operation, operational transients, and accidental events. Then, we evaluate the influence of different dimensioning parameters on the overall measuring performance through Monte Carlo simulations using the MCNP6.2 code. Finally, we investigate, combining theoretical knowledge and simulation results, the physical phenomena involved in the measurement accuracy of BCOMS. This analytical approach not only fosters a deeper comprehension of the underlying phenomena but also facilitates the identification of potential areas for improving measurement accuracy, thereby enhancing the safety of nuclear reactors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As part of the activities for developing experimental devices for research reactors and associated test loops, some concern the development and qualification of instrumentation. The on-board instrumentation makes it possible to monitor online the evolution of physical parameters of samples and/or components subjected to different stresses (thermal, hydraulic, chemical and nuclear, etc.). In addition to the so-called "classic" instrumentation implemented in this type of equipment (pressure, temperature, flow, elongation), R&D actions are in progress in order to propose innovative instrumentation, able to improve the experimental offer and describe the physical phenomena with more accuracy. This is the case of optical measurements which present many advantages (compactness, insensitivity to EM waves, complex measurements by optical interrogation of a single fiber). In addition, actions are underway for the selection of optical fibers that can be used for applications in a nuclear reactor (in particular resistance to the irradiation). The tests presented in this paper relate to the behavior of sealed feedthroughs for optical fibers to the thermal hydraulics conditions of light water reactors. These tests are part of the safety demonstration in so-called degraded operating cases i.e. corresponding to a configuration where the optical fiber is placed directly in the process fluid (pressurized water). One note that in normal operation, the optical fiber is isolated from the process fluid by a jacket consisting of a metal capillary. After an introduction and a brief presentation of the use of optical fibers in experimental equipment, the paper describes the tightness feedthroughs used, the tests carried out, indicate the main results obtained and opens up some perspectives for future development phases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wide-bandgap semiconductor-based fast neutron detectors such as silicon carbide (SiC) seem to be a promising concept to meet the implementation requirements as well as the performance specifications for fusion and fission environments such as radiation hardness as well as thermal and mechanical stabilities. Beyond the problem of integration of the device in constrained environments, the issue of the quantitative response of the device in a mixed radiation field must be addressed. Therefore, the characterisation of the detector performances, according to the energy of the neutrons is a key first step needed for neutron detection and monitoring in mixed radiation environments with high levels of gammas and fast and thermal neutron fluxes emissions at large energy scales. This paper presents the interpretation of 14.1 MeV neutron measurements using a numerical model developed with the GEANT4 MonteCarlo transport code. The methodology used for a first attempt to estimate the fluence rate of incident neutrons is exposed and a calculation versus experiment ratio is determined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I will present a short scientific biography of Guido Altarelli, briefly describing some of his most important seminal works. I will analyze in great details the paper of the q2 evolution of the effective quark distribution: I will put this paper in a historical perspective, describing our theoretical understanding at that time and the reasons why the paper was so successful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper builds on the results so far within the research project focused on conceptual design of an innovative safety system for a Gas-Cooled Nuclear Reactors. The paper focuses on a description of the design methodology of the gas turbine flow path, which is part of the secondary circuit of the proposed safety system. The aim is to propose the design of the last stage turbine blading and then to extract a special bucket blade profile that will match the expected flow direction during deep off-design modes. The extracted blade profile will then be subsequently assembled into a blade row which will be tested in the suction-type high-speed wind tunnel in the Aerodynamic Laboratory of the Institute of Thermomechanics Czech Academy of Science in Nový Knín. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Experimental test rigs such as linear blade cascades often use ambient humid air for internal aerodynamics investigation. However, experimental evidence of flow condensation can be found at higher Mach numbers, especially for lower inlet air temperatures. This paper presents a simple analytical model of the distribution of relative humidity of an air-water mixture and specific mass of condensed vapor as a function of Mach number. Moreover, based on the experimental data, a case study of the transonic flow in a linear blade cascade is performed using ANSYS CFX. The agreement between both approaches is more than satisfactory, leading to further investigations as little is known about the effect of humidity and flow condensation on the flow field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the demonstration measurement of the vector field flowing around a general irregular body using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). In the case of flow around complex bodies, problems arise due to the fact that the generated single laser sheet does not cover the entire surroundings of the body and the body itself shields the laser. A simple solution has been chosen, and that is the gradual repositioning of the laser optics, recording data from individual positions step-by-step, and subsequent merging of the vector fields. The measurement and evaluation workflow is described. The averaged velocity data are presented. The overlapping areas of each field are presented in graphs and as vector maps individually and merged. The problematic circumstances of the chosen approach are described, and their solution is proposed. The chosen principle is functional. However, care must be taken to observe the current conditions between measurements of individual areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A relation between the discharge and the flow depth in an open channel is quite sensitive to resistance (expressed by the friction coefficient) of the channel bottom. This relation is straightforward if the bottom is a fixed boundary, and the discharge is a result of one-phase (water) flow. The relation is considerably more complex if the channel bottom is an eroded mobile bed and the flow is solid-liquid flow. Sediment-transport experiments with various model lightweight sediments in a tilting flume of the Water Engineering Laboratory at Czech Technical University in Prague produced information suitable for an evaluation of the eroded bed resistance at conditions of intense bed load and intense combined load in the upper plane bed regime. An evaluation of the bed load condition has been published recently. This paper discusses a description and quantification of the bed resistance in the case of transported combined load, i.e., at the condition where a certain portion of the sediment is transported as bed load and the rest is transported as suspended load. The results show that the presence of transported sediment tends to increase the bed resistance and hence increases a flow depth for a certain discharge of water in an open channel with an eroded bed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are more possibilities how to control flow rate in a pipeline system. When the flow is provided by pump, it is very economic to use frequency converter to change the pump speed which leads to flow rate change. Another possibility is to change number of running pumps, when pump station contains more than one unit. Control valve is used in systems without pump regulation especially, when the initial costs has to be low. The paper is focused on measurement of control ability of a ball valve. Generally, ball valves are not suitable to fulfil flow control function, but in an emergency case, when the control valve is damaged and the system has to be operated, there is no other possibility, but to use the ball valve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The urban built environment strongly modifies the wind flows and, consequently, can cause heat and pollutant accumulation. The former contributes to generate the Urban Heat Island phenomenon, the latter to the increase in health issues recorded in the cities. Both of them can be mitigated through the proper implementation of the Urban Microclimate Design, which is a design and planning strategy employing the shape and layout of buildings to optimize comfort, air quality and energy efficiency of the built environment and, consequently, contributing to the generation of mitigative cities. In this paper, we present a parametric study, via numerical simulations employing the ENVI-met® three-dimensional microclimate model, of the ventilation and of the dispersion of a pollutant inside and outside a group of courtyard buildings hit by a diagonal wind. All the variables are kept constant, except the length of the internal courtyard, which is the variable parameter. The results suggest that the shape of these buildings biases the air flows and pollutant behaviour, so pointing out that it can be efficiently used to improve the air quality and the outdoor human comfort in the modern cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heat transfer inside a cylinder and the cylinder head of a reciprocating compressor is responsible for the majority of thermodynamic losses in these devices. Both the magnitude and direction of the heat flux through the walls of those components change several times during a single revolution. They are directly dependent on the position of the piston and suction/discharge valves. A better understanding of these thermal processes could lead to better and more targeted cooling. This would result in higher efficiency of the reciprocating compressors. In this paper, two experimental methods for determining heat flux are used. The first method uses heat flux sensors to measure heat flux directly. The other one is focused on the indirect assessment of heat flux via surface-mounted thermocouples. To tie the measurement to the position of the crankshaft, both sensors are coupled to a rotary encoder. The rotary encoder sends a signal once per revolution when the piston is in the top dead center position to trigger signal acquisition. The results show signs of reaching a quasi-steady state and would most likely require sampling of the signal more times per revolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 17O(n,α)14C reaction plays a critical role in astrophysical nucleosynthesis, particularly influencing the s-process in stellar environments. Due to the limitations of direct measurement techniques, indirect methods such as the Trojan Horse Method (THM) and Asymptotic Normalization Coefficient (ANC) analysis are employed to study this reaction at astrophysical energies. This paper discusses the application of THM and ANC to derive the reaction cross sections and explore the contributions of various resonant states of 18O. The results obtained from these indirect methods are consistent and provide new insights into the reaction mechanisms, enhancing our understanding of neutron capture processes and neutron poisons in stars. The findings also demonstrate the effectiveness of combining THM and ANC for studying neutron-induced reactions, potentially facilitating future research using Radioactive Ion Beams (RIBs). This work underscores the importance of indirect measurement techniques in advancing nuclear astrophysics, particularly where direct measurements are challenging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, present status, scientific strategy, recent decade achievements and future perspectives of HUNS with cold, thermal, epithermal, fast neutrons and high-energy electrons/X-rays are presented. Time-of-flight small-angle cold neutron scattering with SAXS is useful for extended-duration materials and foods analysis. Irradiations using fast neutrons, thermal neutrons, 32 MeV electrons and MeV-class X-rays are used for not only soft error test of system-level semiconductor devices but also astrophysics and medical biology. Time-of-flight neutron imaging can accept big sample, system-level sample and many samples for crystalline microstructure and temperature analyses in steel, car and cultural heritage research fields. The reasons of such great activities are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nuclear reaction study is important to understand elemental abundance in the universe and stability of stars. For several reactions due to the paucity of experimental data or diffculties in performing the direct measurements, we depend upon theoretical estimates and therefore one needs reliable theoretical models with minimum inputs. This paper is a short review of our work on nuclear reactions and their applications to astrophysics. In particular, we discuss the nuclear transfer and breakup reaction while focusing on our theoretical modelings and techniques involved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nuclear astrophysics aims at unraveling the cosmic origins of chemical elements and the physical processes powering stars. It constitutes a truly multidisciplinary field, that integrates tools, advancements, and accomplishments from theoretical astrophysics, observational astronomy, cosmochemistry, and theoretical and experimental atomic and nuclear physics. For instance, the advent of high-energy astrophysics, facilitated by space-borne observatories, has ushered in a new era, offering a unique, panchromatic view of the universe (i.e., allowing multifrequency observations of stellar events); supercomputers are also playing a pivotal role, furnishing astrophysicists with computational capabilities essential for studying the intricate evolution of stars within a multidimensional framework; cosmochemists, through examination of primitive meteorites, are uncovering tiny fragments of stardust, shedding light on the physical processes operating in stars and on the mechanisms that govern condensation of stellar ejecta into solids; simultaneously, nuclear physicists managed to measure nuclear reactions at (or close to) stellar energies, using both stable and radioactive ion beam facilities. This paper provides a multidisciplinary view on nucleosynthesis accompanying stellar explosions, with a specific focus on thermonuclear supernovae, classical novae, and type I X-ray bursts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses some of the of open problems in photonuclear physics which await to be resolved using high-brilliance γ-ray beams, such as precise measurements of total or partial cross sections of photonuclear reactions related to astroparticle physics and nuclear astrophysics. The readiness for such measurements at ELI-NP, as well as the state-of-the-art instrumentation which is available are discussed. The possibility to utilize γ-beams with orbital angular momentum in photonuclear experiments is addressed, too. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

NA60+ is a new experiment designed to study the phase diagram of the strongly interacting matter at CERN SPS energies, where the values of the baryochemical potential μB approximately range between 200 and 550 MeV. It is focused on precision studies of thermal dimuons, heavy quarks, and strangeness production in Pb–Pb collisions at center of mass energies ranging from 6 to 17 GeV per nucleon pair. In this paper the apparatus concept and the physics reach will be discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explorations in nuclear physics over the past forty years have significantly advanced our understanding of matter under extreme conditions. Studies at various energy scales, from the AGS to the LHC, have not only confirmed the existence of QGP but also initiated its detailed and meticulous characterization. Progress in detector technology has been pivotal, from streamer chambers to TPCs and cutting-edge silicon detectors, which have enabled precise tracking and particle identification. Despite these advancements, many questions about the QGP properties and the QCD phase diagram remain unanswered. Making progress in these areas provides motivation for continued research utilizing both existing and upcoming accelerator facilities and experimental setups. This paper provides a succinct summary of the present state of accelerator and detector facilities, the progress of ongoing projects, and a perspective on future facilities and detector projects in this domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we provide an exploration of the interrelated topics of chirality, vorticity, and spin polarization in relativistic heavy ion collisions. Our discussion delves into the intricate relationships among these phenomena, examining the recent measurements conducted at both RHIC and LHC.We review the challenges faced, the progress made, and the current state of understanding regarding hot QCD matter under rotation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

sPHENIX is the first new major detector at RHIC in over twenty years. It is designed for pioneering studies of the Quark Gluon Plasma and Cold QCD phenomena using high-pT jet and heavy flavor probes with a broad kinematic reach and a capability to take large statistics sets of A+A, p+p and p+A data. sPHENIX construction was completed in April 2023. It was commissioned and took first Au+Au data in the RHIC 2023 Run. This paper describes the details of the detector design, challenges of sPHENIX construction, progress on the commissioning and first data from the RHIC 2023 run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The IceCube experiment has substantial simulation needs and is in continuous search for the most cost-effective ways to satisfy them. The most CPU-intensive part relies on CORSIKA, a cosmic ray air shower simulation. Historically, IceCube relied exclusively on x86-based CPUs, like Intel Xeon and AMD EPYC, but recently server-class ARM-based CPUs are also becoming available, both on-prem and in the cloud. In this paper we present our experience in running a sample CORSIKA simulation on both ARM and x86 CPUs available through Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE). We used the production binaries for the x86 instances, but had to build the binaries for ARM instances from source code, which turned out to be mostly painless. Our benchmarks show that ARM-based CPUs in GKE were not only the most cost-effective but were also the fastest in absolute terms in all the tested configurations. While the advantage is not drastic, about 20% in cost-effectiveness and less than 10% in absolute terms, it is still large enough to warrant an investment in ARM support for IceCube. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantum computing (QC) has emerged as a promising technology, and is believed to have the potential to advance nuclear and high energy physics (NHEP) by harnessing quantum mechanical phenomena to accelerate computations. In this paper, we give a brief overview of the current state of quantum computing by highlighting challenges it poses and opportunities it offers to the NHEP community. Noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) computers, while limited by imperfections and small scale, may hold promise for near-term quantum advantages when coupled with co-designed quantum algorithms and special-purpose quantum processing units (QPUs). We explore various applications in NHEP, including quantum simulation, event classification, and realtime experiment control, emphasising the potential of variational quantum circuits and related techniques. To identify current interests of the community, we perform an analysis of recent literature in NHEP related to QC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

FastCaloSim is a parameterized simulation of the particle energy response and of the energy distribution in the ATLAS calorimeter. It is a relatively small and self-contained package with massive inherent parallelism and captures the essence of GPU offloading via important operations like data transfer, memory initialization, floating point operations, and reduction. It was identified by the High Energy Physics Center for Computational Excellence project as a good testbed for evaluating the performance and ease of portability of programming models. In this paper, we will discuss the results of our evaluation of the porting process to Kokkos, SYCL, Alpaka, OpenMP and std::par (nvc++), and compare performance on NVIDIA, AMD and Intel GPUs, as well as multicore CPUs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a proof-of-concept semi-supervised autoencoder for the energy reconstruction of scattering particle interactions inside dualphase time projection chambers (TPCs), such as XENONnT. This autoencoder model is trained on simulated XENONnT data and is able to simultaneously reconstruct photosensor array hit patterns and infer the number of electrons in the gas gap, which is proportional to the energy of ionization signals in the TPC. Development plans for this autoencoder model are discussed, including future work in developing a faster simulation technique for dual-phase TPCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

INFN has been running a distributed infrastructure (the Tier-1 at Bologna-CNAF and 9 Tier-2 centres) for more than 20 years which currently offers about 150000 CPU cores and 120 PB of space both in tape and disk storage, serving more than 40 international scientific collaborations. This Grid-based infrastructure was augmented in 2019 with the INFN Cloud: a production quality multi-site federated Cloud infrastructure, composed by a core backbone, and which is able to integrate other INFN sites and public or private Clouds as well. The INFN Cloud provides a customizable and extensible portfolio offering computing and storage services spanning the IaaS, PaaS and SaaS layers, with dedicated solutions to serve special purposes, such as ISO-certified regions for the handling of sensitive data. INFN is now revising and expanding its infrastructure to tackle the challenges expected in the next 10 years of scientific computing adopting a "cloud-first" approach, through which all the INFN data centres will be federated via the INFN Cloud middleware and integrated with key HPC centres, such as the pre-exascale Leonardo machine at CINECA. In such a process, which involves both the infrastructures and the higher level services, initiatives and projects such as the "Italian National Centre on HPC, Big Data and Quantum Computing" (funded in the context of the Italian "National Recovery and Resilience Plan") and the Bologna Technopole are precious opportunities that will be exploited to offer advanced resources and services to universities, research institutions and industry. In this paper we describe how INFN is evolving its computing infrastructure, with the ambition to create and operate a national vendorneutral, open, scalable, and flexible "datalake" able to serve much more than just INFN users and experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present the results of charged particle track reconstruction in CLAS12 using artificial intelligence. In our approach, we use neural networks working together to identify tracks based on the raw signals in the Drift Chambers. A Convolutional Auto-Encoder is used to de-noise raw data by removing the hits that do not satisfy the patterns for tracks, and second Multi-Layer Perceptron is used to identify tracks from combinations of clusters in the drift chambers. Our method increases the tracking efficiency by 50% for multi-particle final states already conducted experiments. The de-noising results indicate that future experiments can run at higher luminosity without degradation of the data quality. This in turn will lead to significant benefits for the CLAS12 physics program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Significant advances in utilizing deep learning for anomaly detection have been made in recent years. However, these methods largely assume the existence of a normal training set (i.e., uncontaminated by anomalies) or even a completely labeled training set. In many complex engineering systems, such as particle accelerators, labels are sparse and expensive; in order to perform anomaly detection in these cases, we must drop these assumptions and utilize a completely unsupervised method. This paper introduces the Resilient Variational Autoencoder (ResVAE), a deep generative model specifically designed for anomaly detection. ResVAE exhibits resilience to anomalies present in the training data and provides feature-level anomaly attribution. During the training process, ResVAE learns the anomaly probability for each sample as well as each individual feature, utilizing these probabilities to effectively disregard anomalous examples in the training data. We apply our proposed method to detect anomalies in the accelerator status at the SLAC Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS). By utilizing shot-to-shot data from the beam position monitoring system, we demonstrate the exceptional capability of ResVAE in identifying various types of anomalies that are visible in the accelerator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With containers being the de-facto standard to package, distribute, and run applications, Helm charts are on the rise for application deployment in managed clusters (e.g., Kubernetes, OpenShift), providing developers and operators with a rich ecosystem of tools to utilize, as well as the means to configure applications and roll changes out in a programmatic way. This paper describes the reboot of the ScienceBox project: The containerized software bundle providing the ability to deploy CERN storage and analysis services on any cloud or local infrastructure. While the service offering provided through ScienceBox remains unchanged, we evolved the original implementation to make use of Helm charts across the entire stack and incorporated a major architectural update to CERNBox, replacing the previous PHP backend with a distributed microservices architecture. ScienceBox maintains the flexibility to be deployed in a few clicks for demonstration purposes, or scaled out on managed clusters for the provisioning of a multi-user service. It also removes external dependencies by deploying additional services (e.g., IDP, DBs) and facilitates the configuration of the service stack by providing automated configuration scripts, making the package fully self-contained and easy to use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) experiment is set to begin data taking in 2024 with the aim of determining the neutrino mass ordering (NMO) to a significance of 3 σ after 6 years of data taking. Achieving this goal requires effective background suppression, with the background induced by cosmic-ray muons being one of the most significant sources of interference in the NMO study. Accurately simulating the cosmic-ray muon background is crucial for the success of the experiment, but the sheer number of optical photons produced by the muon makes this detector simulation process extremely time-consuming using traditional methods such as Geant4. This paper presents a fast muon simulation method that employs neural networks to expedite the simulation process. Our approach achieves an order-of-magnitude speed-up in simulation time compared to Geant4, while still producing accurate results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High energy physics experiments heavily rely on the results of MC simulation of data used to extract physics results. However, the detailed simulation often requires tremendous amount of computation resources. Using Generative Adversarial Networks and other deep learning generative techniques can drastically speed up the computationally heavy simulations like a simulation of the calorimeter response. To be useful, such models are required to satisfy quality metrics which are driven by a specific physics properties of generated objects rather than by a regular ML image-like quality metrics. The auxiliary regression extension to the GAN-based fast simulation demonstrated improvements of the physics quality for generated objects. This approach introduces physics metrics to a Discriminator path of the model thus allows direct discriminating of objects with poorly reproduced properties. In this paper we discuss the auxiliary regression GAN approach to physicsbased fast simulation and concentrate on requirements to the quality of the auxiliary regressor to provide a necessary precision of the generative models built on top of this regressor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The operating conditions defining the current data taking campaign at the Large Hadron Collider, known as Run 3, present unparalleled challenges for the real-time data acquisition workflow of the LHCb experiment at CERN. To address the anticipated surge in luminosity and consequent event rate, the LHCb experiment is transitioning to a fully software-based trigger system. This evolution necessitated innovations in hardware configurations, software paradigms, and algorithmic design. A significant advancement is the integration of monotonic Lipschitz Neural Networks into the LHCb trigger system. These deep learning models offer certified robustness against detector instabilities, and the ability to encode domain-specific inductive biases. Such properties are crucial for the inclusive heavy-flavour triggers and, most notably, for the topological triggers designed to inclusively select b-hadron candidates by exploiting the unique kinematic and decay topologies of beauty decays. This paper describes the recent progress in integrating Lipschitz Neural Networks into the topological triggers, highlighting the resulting enhanced sensitivity to highly displaced multi-body candidates produced within the LHCb acceptance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are ongoing efforts to investigate theories that aim to explain the current shortcomings of the Standard Model of particle physics. One such effort is the Long-Lived Particle Jet Tagging Algorithm, based on a DNN (Deep Neural Network), which is used to search for exotic new particles. This paper describes two novel optimisations in the design of this DNN, suitable for implementation on an FPGA-based accelerator. The first involves the adoption of cyclic random access memories and the reuse of multiply-accumulate operations. The second involves storing matrices distributed over many RAM memories with elements grouped by index. An evaluation of the proposed methods and hardware architectures is also included. The proposed optimisations can yield performance enhancements by more than an order of magnitude compared to software implementations. The innovations can also lead to smaller FPGA footprints and accordingly reduce power consumption, allowing for instance duplication of compute units to achieve increases in effective throughput. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The "A Large Ion Collider Experiment" (ALICE), one of the four large experiments at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), is responsible for studying the physics of strongly interacting matter and the quark-gluon plasma. In order to ensure the full success of ALICE operation and data taking during the Large Hadron Collider Runs 3 and 4, a list of tasks identified as Service Work is established and maintained. This concerns detector maintenance, operation, calibration, quality control, data processing and outreach, as well as coordination and managerial roles in ALICE. The ALICE Glance Service Work system is a tool developed by a cooperation between the ALICE Collaboration and several universities that serves as the link between the user interaction and thousands of database entries. This paper describes the development process of this system and its functionalities, which range from planning the entire year of work for hundreds of tasks to individually assigning these tasks to members of the collaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Italian WLCG Tier-1 located in Bologna and managed by INFN-CNAF has a long tradition in supporting several research communities in the fields of High-Energy Physics, Astroparticle Physics, Gravitational Waves, Nuclear Physics and others, to which provides computing resources in the form of batch computing, both HPC, HTC and Cloud, and storage. Although the LHC experiments at CERN represent the main users of the Tier-1 resources, an increasing number of communities and experiments are also being supported in all of their computing activities. Due to this demanding user base, an efficient support system is needed in order to assure a smooth and appropriate exploitation of the computing infrastructure. In this framework, such a role is played by the Tier-1 User Support group, which acts as the entry point for services, support requests, and problem reports. The group makes use of multiple systems to meet the different needs and specificities of the supported experiments. Moreover, the group continuously maintains detailed knowledge base in the form of an on-line user guide and develops tools to advertise specific information about the services available to the communities in a form that is easy to access and use. The communication channels are represented by ticketing systems and also by mailing lists used for a more direct communication, allowing to promptly notify maintenance interventions, downtimes and more in general all the new features and services provided by the center. In this paper, the ticketing systems, tools, platforms and services that User Support offers, and the internal organization of the department will be described. Future workflow plans in view of the DATACLOUD project, which will require an increasing effort, will also be presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The NSF-funded IRIS-HEP "Training, Education & Outreach" program and QuarkNet are partnering to enable and expand software training for the high school teachers with a goal to tap, grow and diversify the talent pipeline from K-12 students for future cyberinfrastructure. The Institute for Research and Innovation in Software for High Energy Physics (IRIS-HEP) is a software institute that aims to develop the state-of-the-art software cyberinfrastructure for the High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC) at CERN and other planned HEP experiments of the 2020's. QuarkNet provides professional development to K-12 physics teachers in particle physics content and teaching methods. The two projects have recently built a collaborative relationship where a well-established community of QuarkNet K-12 teachers has access to a wide training on software tools via its Data and Coding Camps supported by IRISHEP. The paper highlights the synergistic efforts and future plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CloudVeneto is a private cloud targeted to scientific communities based on OpenStack software. It was designed in 2013 and put in operation one year later, to support INFN projects, mainly HEP ones. Its resources are physically distributed among two sites: the Physics Department of University of Padova-INFN Padova Unit and the INFN Legnaro National Laboratories. During these 10 years CloudVeneto evolved to integrate also resources funded by ten Departments of the University of Padova, and to support several scientific disciplines of different domains. The use cases the communities have to face up often show a common pattern. This was an opportunity for us to develop and improve the services on our infrastructure to provide common solutions to different use cases. It happened for example with the Container as a Service (CaaS) that makes the management of Kubernetes clusters easier from a user point of view. Moreover, CloudVeneto joined the INFN national cloud infrastructure (INFN Cloud), making available some resources to this federated infrastructure. CloudVeneto is also involved in an R&D project to realize a distributed analysis facility for the CMS experiment based on the HTCondor batch system. In this paper we describe some use-cases of different projects pointing out the common patterns and the new implementations and configurations done in the infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2020, UKRI/STFC's Scientific Computing Department (SCD) have developed several remote-first public engagement activities, drawing on its long and rich history of delivering face to face public engagement and outreach, as part of the wider STFC programme. With COVID19 restrictions lifted in the UK, STFC has been able to resume in-person public engagement, both on site and in public places. However, this has not meant a complete return to exclusively in-person engagement, but rather, recognising the clear benefits of remote engagement to meeting our strategic public engagement aims, STFC has produced a blended programme for 2022/23, with a mixture of in-person, remote and hybrid events. This paper presents how the remote activities have evolved since their initial creation, how the remote activities have become part of a blended programme and how the in-person activities in place since before the pandemic have been improved as a result of developing the remote activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Big Science projects common of multi-institute particle-physics collaborations generates unique needs for member management, including paper authorship tracking, shift assignments, subscription to mailing lists and access to 3rd party applications such as Github and Slack. For smaller collaborations under 200 people, often no facility for centralized member management is available and these needs are usually manually handled by long-term members despite the management becoming untenable as collaborations grow. To automate many of these tasks for the expanding XENON collaboration, we developed the XENONnT User Management Website, a web application that stores and updates data related to the collaboration members through the use of Node.js and MongoDB. We found that web frameworks are so mature and approachable such that a student can develop a good system to meet the unique needs of the collaboration. The application allows for the scheduling of shifts for members to coordinate between institutes. User manipulation of 3rd party applications are implemented using REST API integration. The XENONnT User Management Website is open source and is a show case of quick implementation of utility application using the web framework, which demonstrated the utility of web-based approaches for solving specific problems to aid the logistics of running Big Science collaborations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Creating new materials, discovering new drugs, and simulating systems are essential processes for research and innovation and require substantial computational power. While many applications can be split into many smaller independent tasks, some cannot and may take hours or weeks to run to completion. To better manage those longer-running jobs, it would be desirable to stop them at any arbitrary point in time and later continue their computation on another compute resource; this is usually referred to as checkpointing. While some applications can manage checkpointing programmatically, it would be preferable if the batch scheduling system could do that independently. This paper evaluates the feasibility of using CRIU (Checkpoint Restore in Userspace), an open-source tool for the GNU/Linux environments, emphasizing the OSG's OSPool HTCondor setup. CRIU allows checkpointing the process state into a disk image and can deal with both open files and established network connections seamlessly. Furthermore, it can checkpoint traditional Linux processes and containerized workloads. The functionality seems adequate for many scenarios supported in the OSPool. However, some limitations prevent it from being usable in all circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasingly larger data volumes that the LHC experiments will accumulate in the coming years, especially in the High-Luminosity LHC era, call for a paradigm shift in the way experimental datasets are accessed and analyzed. The current model, based on data reduction on the Grid infrastructure, followed by interactive data analysis of manageable size samples on the physicists' individual computers, will be superseded by the adoption of Analysis Facilities. This rapidly evolving concept is converging to include dedicated hardware infrastructures and computing services optimized for the effective analysis of large HEP data samples. This paper describes the actual implementation of this new analysis facility model at the CIEMAT institute, in Spain, to support the local CMS experiment community. Our work details the deployment of dedicated highly performant hardware, the operation of data staging and caching services ensuring prompt and efficient access to CMS physics analysis datasets, and the integration and optimization of a custom analysis framework based on ROOT's RDataFrame and CMS NanoAOD format. Finally, performance results obtained by benchmarking the deployed infrastructure and software against a CMS analysis workflow are summarized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the rapid progress, vision and outlook across multiple state of the art development lines within the Global Network Advancement Group (GNA-G) and its Data Intensive Sciences and SENSE/AutoGOLE working groups, which are designed to meet the present and future needs and address the challenges of the Large Hadron Collider and other science programs with global reach. Since it was founded in the Fall of 2019 and the working groups were formed in 2020, in partnership with ESnet, Internet2, CENIC, GEANT, ANA, RNP, StarLight, NRP, N-DISE, AmLight, and many other leading research and education networks and network R&D projects, as well as Caltech, UCSD/SDSC, Fermilab, CERN, LBL, and many other leading universities and laboratories, the GNA-G working groups have deployed two virtual circuit and programmable testbeds spanning six continents which supports continuous developments aimed at the next generation of programmable networks interworking with the science programs' computing and data management systems. The talk covers examples of recent progress in developing and deploying new methods and approaches in multidomain virtual circuits, flow steering, path selection, load balancing and congestion avoidance, segment routing and machine learning based traffic prediction and optimization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior to the start of the LHC Run 3, the US ATLAS Software and Computing operations program established three shared Tier 3 Analysis Facilities (AFs). The newest AF was established at the University of Chicago in the past year, joining the existing AFs at Brookhaven National Lab and SLAC National Accelerator Lab. In this paper, we will describe both the common and unique aspects of these three AFs, and the resulting distributed facility from the user's perspective, including how we monitor and measure the AFs. The common elements include enabling easy access via Federated ID, file sharing via EOS, provisioning of similar Jupyter environments using common Jupyter kernels and containerization, and efforts to centralize documentation and user support channels. The unique components we will cover are driven in turn by the requirements, expertise and resources at each individual site. Finally, we will highlight how the US AFs are collaborating with other ATLAS and LHC wide (IRIS-HEP and HSF) user analysis support activities, evaluating tools like ServiceX and Coffea-Casa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ATLAS Trigger and Data Acquisition (TDAQ) High Level Trigger (HLT) computing farm contains 120 000 CPU cores. These resources are critical for the online selection and collection of collision data in the ATLAS experiment during LHC operation. Since 2013, during a longer period of LHC inactivity, these resources are being used for offline event simulation via the "Simulation at Point One" project (Sim@P1). With the recent start of LHC Run 3 and the flat computing budget expected in the near future, finding ways to maximize resource utilization efficiency is of paramount importance. Recent improvements in the ATLAS software stack can potentially allow the utilization of the Sim@P1 even during LHC operation for the duration of the LHC inter-fill gaps. While previous papers on the Sim@P1 project emphasized the technical implementation details, the current contribution is presenting results of a variety of tests that led to the optimal configuration of the job submission infrastructure which would allow the use of Sim@P1 during LHC Run 3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More than 500 servers are actively managed by the Windows infrastructure team on the CERN site. They run critical services for the laboratory, from controlling some of the accelerator systems to directory services, storage, and databases. Visibility of the state of these servers at all times is critical for smooth operation of their services. This paper describes the implementation of an open-source ecosystem based on icinga2, focused on how to monitor Windows-based services, and the technical choices and configurations that were made to transparently deploy and manage an opensource monitoring infrastructure in the organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

LHCb (Large Hadron Collider beauty) is one of the four large particle physics experiments aimed at studying differences between particles and anti-particles and very rare decays in the charm and beauty sector of the standard model at the LHC. The Experiment Control System (ECS) is in charge of the configuration, control, and monitoring of the various subdetectors as well as all areas of the online system, and it is built on top of hundreds of Linux virtual machines (VM) running on a Red Hat Enterprise Virtualisation cluster. For such a mission-critical project, it is essential to keep the system operational; it is not possible to run the LHCb's Data Acquisition without the ECS, and a failure would likely mean the loss of valuable data. In the event of a disruptive fault, it is important to recover as quickly as possible in order to restore normal operations. In addition, the VM's lifecycle management is a complex task that needs to be simplified, automated, and validated in all of its aspects, with a particular focus on deployment, provisioning, and monitoring. The paper describes the LHCb's approach to this challenge, including the methods, solutions, technology, and architecture adopted. We also show limitations and problems encountered, and we present the results of tests performed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The HEPiX Benchmarking Working Group has devised a new HEPspecific benchmark, HEPscore23. This benchmark is an instance of the underlying benchmarking tool that is HEPscore, also created by the Working Group during this endeavor. HEPscore can be set up to run different HEP Workloads, autonomous production applications sourced from various HEP experiments. Through study and analysis, a subset of those workloads was elected, the minimal set that best represented HEP applications overall. To streamline the benchmarking process, this benchmarking framework includes the HEP Benchmark Suite, which facilitates the execution of HEPscore and other benchmarks, such as HEP-SPEC06, SPEC CPU 2006, and DB12. This paper elucidates the rationale behind the benchmark, and the framework created to develop it, delineates the key design considerations, diving into the motivations behind it and the flexibility and advantages that is offers as a replacement of HS06 in the WLCG and HEP communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Computational science, data management and analysis have been key factors in the success of Brookhaven National Laboratory's scientific programs at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS-II), the Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN), and in biological, atmospheric, and energy systems science, Lattice Quantum Chromodynamics (LQCD) and Materials Science, as well as our participation in international research collaborations, such as the ATLAS Experiment at Europe's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN (Switzerland) and the Belle II Experiment at KEK (Japan). The construction of a new data center is an acknowledgement of the increasing demand for computing and storage services at BNL in the near term and enable the Lab to address the needs of the future experiments at the High-Luminosity LHC at CERN and the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) at BNL in the long term. The Computing Facility Revitalization (CFR) project is aimed at repurposing the former National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS-I) building as the new data center for BNL. The construction of the new data center was finished in 2021Q3, and it was delivered for production in early FY2022 for all collaborations supported by the Scientific Data and Computing Center (SDCC), including STAR, PHENIX and sPHENIX experiments at RHIC collider at BNL, the Belle II Experiment at KEK (Japan), and the Computational Science Initiative at BNL (CSI). This paper highlights the key mechanical, electrical, and networking components of the new data center in its final configuration as used in production since 2021Q4 and gives an overview for the extension of the central network systems into the new data center and the migration of a significant portion of IT load and services from the old data center to the new data center carried out in 20212023, with expected completion of the main phase of the gradual IT equipment replacement and migration from the old data center into the new one set to the end of FY2023 (Sep 30, 2023). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]