The Spin Physics Detector (SPD) is an experiment which is build on the NICA collider to study spin structure of the proton and the deuteron and other spin-related phenomena with polarized proton and deuteron beams at a collision energy up to 27 GeV. The SPD setup is designed as a 4pi universal detector with advanced tracking and particle identification (PID) capabilities. The straw-tube system (ST) placed within a solenoidal magnetic field should provide the transverse momentum resolution of about 2%. High resolution can be achieved only with assistance by the time-of-flight system (TOF) with a time resolution better than 70 ps. Both high resolution on time and momenta should be achieved by means of rigorous procedures and algorithms during offline-analysis. The student’s project will focus on development of methods to find the best estimate of the collision time (T0) based on information on tracks momenta and timing. The best estimate should also test different hypotheses on types of outgoing charged particles (PID). The study should implement different strategies: the exhaustive search, use of optimization algorithms (incl. Genetic and Evolutionary algorithms to solve mixed binary-continuous optimization problems) and other approaches. Last but not least the performance (efficiency, robustness) of above mentioned methods should be evaluated in the simulated experimental conditions, which include events overlap, noise and ouliers.

Tasks

Implementation of the methods to estimate the collision time (T0), which includes the formulation of the corresponding physics problem and its numerical solution by a C++ programme.

Preliminary schedule by topics/tasks

Preliminary schedule: 4-6 weeks in August-September
1. Introduction into methods to measure momenta and timing in particle physics
2. Introduction to Genetic and Evolutionary algorithms
3. Implementation of the exhaustive search as a reference method
4. Implementation/adapting of optimization algorithms
5. Performance evaluation of different methods
6. The final report

Required skills

The successful candidate should have sufficient knowledge of particle physics with good skills in C++ programming.

Acquired skills and experience

- knowledge on approaches to reconstruct particle properties in high-energy physics
- advanced knowledge in optimization techniques
- acquaintance to math / real life metrics of goodness-of-fit and goodness-of-method

Recommended literature

Conceptual design of the Spin Physics Detector (https://arxiv.org/abs/2102.00442)
C++ language tutorial (https://www.cplusplus.com/files/tutorial.pdf)
CERN ROOT online manual (https://root.cern)