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Theoretical and Experimental Particle Physics at the Exascale Frontier

Lead Research Organisation: Swansea University
Department Name: College of Science

Abstract

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
 
Description The award was obtained for leading a community (Theoretical and Experimental Particle Physics) toward the Exascale. This specific portion of the wider grant has mostly focussed on the Lattice Field Theory community, which is a sub-community of Theoretical Particle Physics. The project has produced scalable research code and provided training to researchers and research software engineers. A toolset has been developed to benchmark the performance of production lattice quantum field theory software applicable to QCD and Beyond the Standard Model physics on pre-exascale and exascale supercomputers. Moreover, a tool set has been developed to automate the process of running such benchmarks on multiple systems concurrently. The performance of a variety of high-performance computing services, including ExCALIBUR testbed systems, has been studied using this tooling. Training has been delivered to upskill researchers and research software engineers in particle physics in techniques applicable to exascale computing.
Exploitation Route We have released open-source software that can be used and modified by the community and by supercomputer vendors. The wider research community can easily access and deploy the tools we have developed. ; Given the broader applicability of the training we have developed and deployed, this has been opened to and taken by researchers from other areas.
Sectors Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)
 
Description We have released a benchmark that has been adopted by the high-performance computing industry. The major impact has been on supercomputing vendors, who have benefited from our findings to develop more performing architectures.
First Year Of Impact 2021
Sector Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)
Impact Types Economic
 
Description Towards a Computational Collaboration Project on Theoretical and Experimental Particle Physics
Amount £262,677 (GBP)
Organisation Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 01/2025 
End 12/2026
 
Title Symplectic lattice gauge theories on Grid: approaching the conformal window---data release 
Description This is the data release relative to the paper "Symplectic lattice gauge theories on Grid: approaching the conformal window" (arXiv:2306.11649). It contains pre-analysed data that can be plotted, and raw data that can be analysed and plotted through the analysis code in doi:10.5281/zenodo.8136514. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2023 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact The dataset describes gauge theories investigated as potential extensions of the standard model in particle physics. It is of interest to researchers in the field for verification and reproducibility. 
URL https://zenodo.org/record/8136452
 
Title Symplectic lattice gauge theories on Grid: approaching the conformal window---data release 
Description This is the data release relative to the paper "Symplectic lattice gauge theories on Grid: approaching the conformal window" (arXiv:2306.11649). It contains pre-analysed data that can be plotted, and raw data that can be analysed and plotted through the analysis code in doi:10.5281/zenodo.8136514. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2023 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact The dataset describes gauge theories investigated as potential extensions of the standard model in particle physics. It is of interest to researchers in the field for verification and reproducibility. 
URL https://zenodo.org/record/8136451
 
Title BKeeper 
Description BKeeper is a benchmark for high-performance computing systems based on the Grid toolchain. It is able to target GPU and CPU-based machines, and probes the performance of both QCD and theories Beyond the Standard Model. The latter property enables it to tune the ratio of demands placed on the computational hardware versus those on the interconnect between the compute nodes. 
Type Of Technology Software 
Year Produced 2024 
Open Source License? Yes  
Impact This benchmark is being used to inform the procurement of a new HPC system at Swansea University. 
URL https://github.com/RChrHill/BKeeper
 
Title Benchmarking 
Description Derived from the research supercomputer code we have written, we have developed BSMBench, an advanced benchmarking technology that can be used by supercomputer vendors, users and data centre to assess the performance of the system. 
Type Of Technology Software 
Year Produced 2012 
Impact The software is currently commercialised by a spin-out company, with customers outside academia. 
 
Title SOMBRERO Benchmarking Suite 
Description SOMBRERO is a suite of benchmarks for High-Performance Computing systems. SOMBRERO is derived from HiRep, a research code used in theoretical particle physics for studying strong interactions beyond the standard model. The physical properties of the interactions simulated by HiRep give SOMBRERO a unique ability to vary the ratio between computation and communication by simply changing the internal degrees of freedom of the physical model. This ability makes SOMBRERO an ideal tool for exploring performance on supercomputing systems under workloads of varying intensity. 
Type Of Technology Software 
Year Produced 2021 
Open Source License? Yes  
Impact SOMBRERO has become part of the UKRI ExCALIBUR benchmarking suite and has in fact provided a template for developing other benchmarks. SOMBRERO has been featured in the Linux Format Magazine, which targets a wide lay audience. SOMBRERO is being adopted by leading HPC companies to assess the performance of their systems. 
 
Title Symplectic lattice gauge theories on Grid: approaching the conformal window-analysis code 
Description This is the analysis code that has been used to analyse and plot the data for the paper 'Symplectic lattice gauge theories on Grid: approaching the conformal window' (arXiv:2306.11649). 
Type Of Technology Software 
Year Produced 2023 
Impact The software impacts the community, and is used for reproducibility, verification and measuring performance. 
URL https://zenodo.org/record/8136513
 
Description First ExaTEPP workshop 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact The workshop provided an update on the work performed in the project and an opportunity for external partners to continue to engage with the project. Presenters included academics and RSEs on the project, other researchers in the UK, industrial stakeholders, and UKRI colleagues. Plans for future work and future engagements were made.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://indico.cern.ch/event/1287030/