Applicants interested in the ESR10 project should additionally submit their application documents on the Lund recruitment system Varbi. In accordance with Swedish law, the hiring decision for ESR10 will be based on the application materials submitted through Varbi. The deadline for submission on Varbi is March 17.
ESR10: Real-time calibration of ALICE Time Projection Chamber and ML traffic predictions
Notice to applicants
Project Description
This PhD student will study and commission the ALICE Time Projection Chamber (TPC) detector, learn about machine learning through a secondment at XIMANTIS to work on hybrid networks, and perform a physics analysis of data from the ALICE detector at CERN.
Until early 2022, the LHC will be shut down to upgrade and prepare the experiments for Run 3. The goal of the ALICE upgrade is to be able to analyse the full rate of 50000 events per second, increasing the sensitivity for most measurements by between one and two orders of magnitude. In order to cope with the increased data rates, a major upgrade of the TPC with a Gas Electron Multiplier (GEM) readout has been undertaken that will allow continuous operation. This continuous readout requires a whole new software framework called O2 (online-offline), with the goal of doing calibration and reconstruction of the data in real time. The first objective of this PhD project will be to contribute to the development of the ALICEO2 framework and use this expertise in the analysis of the first data from Run 3, which will start in 2022. In particular, due to fluctuations in the build up of space charge during operation, the upgraded TPC will have to be calibrated every 5 milliseconds over a space volume of 90 cubic metres. This demands fast, effective and robust algorithms that this PhD student will develop, tune and benchmark. The subtraction of noise at the earliest possible stage for future developments of these algorithms will benefit from an internship at XIMANTIS to work on hybrid systems (e.g. Convolutional Neural Network coupled to differential equations models) which can capture features in different dimensionalities (e.g. space and time for traffic monitoring and forecasting, position and timing of noise in the detector). A stay at CERN will allow the implementation of the real-time calibration algorithms in the ALICE software, as well as training and interaction with the core of the ALICE O2 development team. The analysis focus of this PhD project is the analysis of heavy-ion data. This analysis will be a measurement of the nuclear modification factor, since this measurement will be very sensitive to the corrections and a perfect testing ground for the algorithms developed.
The six-month secondment at CERN will require temporary relocation to Switzerland. Other short visits at CERN and travel to international conferences are anticipated.
Host country: Sweden
Host beneficiary: Lund University
PhD-awarding institution: Lund University
Experiment affiliation: ALICE
Planned collaborations: Ximantis, CERN
Secondments
- CERN, Switzerland
- Ximantis, Lund
Special requirements
A formal requirement for doctoral studies in physics is:
- a university degree at an advanced level within a related field, such as a Master’s degree in physics or equivalent, or
- substantial advanced course work at the Master level, or comparable, including an independent research project.
- furthermore, the acceptance is based on the estimated ability to accomplish postgraduate studies.
Good knowledge of spoken and written English is a requirement.
Offer
A PhD position is an employment with the main duty to be engaged in PhD studies according to the study plan. The duration of PhD studies is 4 years full time, with a status as MSCA ESR covering the first three years which includes a competitive salary, family and mobility and travel/training allowance. In addition, those appointed to doctoral student positions may be required to work with educational tasks, research and technical/administrative duties at a level of at most 20% of full time. The position is then extended correspondingly, however not longer than corresponding to 5 years full time employment. PhD positions are subject to special regulations. These can be found in the Swedish Higher Education Ordinance (SFS 1993:100, chapter 5, with updates). Only those who are or have been admitted to PhD-studies may be appointed to a PhD position.
Limit of tenure, four years according to HF 5 kap 7§.
For further information on this position, contact directly the PIs through the central recruitment tool.
Institute and supervisor information
Lund University is Scandinavia’s largest institution for education and research and the highest-ranking university in Sweden. It was founded in 1666, and consists of 8 faculties and several research centres and institutes, hosting today 27,000 students and 7,000 еmployees. In SMARTHEP, LU is represented by a group of researchers from the Particle Physics division of the Department of Physics.
In the experimental particle physics division at Lund University we participate in the ATLAS and ALICE experiments at CERN, are involved in the planning and construction of the future LDMX experiment at SLAC, and are exploring opportunities for future fundamental physics at the ESS. In ALICE, the group studies the hot and dense matter produced in high-energy collisions of heavy ions, the quark-gluon plasma (QGP), and searches for QGP-like signals in proton-proton collisions as well. The ATLAS group searches for new phenomena such as dark matter and exotic Higgs bosons in proton-proton collisions at the LHC, and is involved in the large-scale computing efforts necessary for high-energy physics experiments. In both ALICE and ATLAS, we work on the construction, calibration, and upgrades of the particle tracking and identification hardware that makes such data analysis possible.
Lund University welcomes applicants with diverse backgrounds and experiences. We regard gender equality and diversity as a strength and an asset.
Main supervisor: Alice Ohlson
Alice Ohlson has been an associate senior lecturer at Lund University since May 2019 and a member of the ALICE Collaboration since 2013. Her research is in the area of heavy-ion physics where she studies the properties of the quark-gluon plasma through measurements of correlations and fluctuations of identified particles in lead-lead and proton-proton collisions at the LHC.
Co-supervisor: Oxana Smirnova
Oxana Smirnova is a senior lecturer at Lund University, and works there since 1997, starting as a researcher with the DELPHI experiment at CERN, and moving on to the ATLAS experiment in 2000. Her main focus is on ATLAS software and computing, and she currently holds a position of the ATLAS International Computing Board chair.
Co-supervisor: Peter Christiansen
Peter Christiansen is Professor at Lund University where he has worked since 2006. His main activity is the ALICE experiment and he has been a member of the collaboration since 2004. His research is particularly focused on QGP-like effects in small collision systems to understand where he attempts to uncover the microscopic processes governing these effects.
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Email: smarthep-recruitment@cern.ch
SMARTHEP is funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, call H2020-MSCA-ITN-2020, under Grant Agreement n. 956086
