Description

Visualising HEP event data is currently typically done per experiment (e.g. VP1, Iguana, Fireworks), and normally involves the installation of dedicated software. However modern browsers are more than capable of showing complex detector geometry, as well as representations of the underlying physics. As the Visualisation section of HSF Community White Paper explained, using an intermediate data format (e.g. JSON) makes it possible to separate the event display from the underlying (experiment-specific) software framework.

Phoenix is a framework that can be used by any typical (e.g. colliding beam) High Energy Physics experiment. It was initially based on work done for the TrackML Kaggle/Codalab challenges (and internal use by ATLAS). GSOC students in 2019 and 2020 ported it to angular, wrote and implemented a new menu system and much more. Most base functionality now exists for the core display - the task now is to polish this, and develop better the VR display.

Task ideas

• Together with the rest of the Phoenix team, investigate open-source VR menu systems and use the best option to improve the VR experience in Phoenix
• Improve the dynamic cutting to allow for two cutting planes (so we can have small geometry wedges)
• Implement a phi cut widget (for use in the above, but also for standard physics objects)
• Implement a calorimeter renderer for ATLAS, which sweep the calorimeter profile around, showing clean closed geometry
• Investigate support for more HEP geometry systems, such as GeoModel and DD4HEP
• New visualisation techniques, such as projections into a calorimeter cluster plane
• Implement an animation creation UI, keyframing camera position and menu settings, similar to that of VP1. So we could produce an animation of different parts of the detector turning off an on, with a moving camera.
• Implement better visualisation for compound objects, such as Photons and Muons (i.e. if a Muon is created from Tracks, Clusters etc, should visually link them i.e. with colour)

Expected results

UI improvements for both normal views and VR, and possibly some improved core functionality.

Requirements

Angular, Typescript, Web development (GUI design experience and threejs knowledge a bonus).

Mentors

• Fawad Ali
• Riccardo Maria Bianchi
• Andreas Salzburger
• Edward Moyse

Links

• Phoenix
• Kaggle challenge
• Codalab challenge

Corresponding Project

• Phoenix

Participating Organizations

• UMass
• Pittsburgh
• CERN

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