Jas4pp — A data-analysis framework for physics and detector studies

Abstract

This paper describes the Jas4pp framework for exploring physics cases and for detector-performance studies of future particle collision experiments. Jas4pp is a multi-platform Java program for numeric calculations, scientific visualization in 2D and 3D, storing data in various file formats and displaying collision events and detector geometries. It also includes complex data-analysis algorithms for function minimization, regression analysis, event reconstruction (such as jet reconstruction), limit settings and other libraries widely used in particle physics. The framework can be used with several scripting languages, such as Python/Jython, Groovy and JShell. Several benchmark tests discussed in the paper illustrate significant improvements in the performance of the Groovy and JShell scripting languages compared to the standard Python implementation in C. The improvements for numeric computations in Java are attributed to recent enhancements in the Java Virtual Machine.

Program summary

Program title: Jas4pp

CPC Library link to program files: https://doi.org/10.17632/jzvddk26cy.1

Developer’s repository link: https://atlaswww.hep.anl.gov/asc/jas4pp/

Licensing provisions: GNU General Public License 3

Programming language: Java, Jython, Groovy

Nature of problem: Develop a platform-independent data-analysis framework for high-energy and nuclear physics (HEP and NP) with a support of fast dynamically-typed scripting languages, comprehensive data-visualisation and I/O libraries.

Solution method: The solution adopted here is to use Java and the scripting languages integrated with Java VM.

Additional comments: All 3rd party Java libraries included with this program are licensed by GPLv3, GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) or by other licenses compatible with the GPLv3 license, and adhere to Mendeley Data approved open-source software licenses. These licenses files are includes with the program.

Introduction

Software frameworks are central to physics analysis and detector-performance studies in particle collision experiments. In the past decades such analysis frameworks have included PAW (“Physics Analysis Work station”) [1] implemented in C/Fortran, ROOT [2] written in C++, and Jas3 (“Java Analysis Studio”) [3] implemented in Java. The latter program was developed at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. It was used for the SiD detector concept [4] of the International Linear Collider (ILC) project [5], and then it was extended to a more versatile package with downloadable plugins for various projects beyond high-energy physics (HEP) experiments. For example, such Java libraries are used in reconstruction, calibration, monitoring and physics analysis of the CLAS12 and HPS experiments [6], [7] in the experimental Hall B at Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Lab).

With an increased interest in other future HEP projects, such as CLIC [8], the high-energy LHC (HE-LHC), and $pp$ colliders of the European initiative, FCC-hh [9] and the Chinese initiative (CEPC [10] and SppC [11] experiments), it becomes apparent that sustainable software packages with easy deployment by end-users are important. Jas3 was one of the most promising packages to satisfy the above-mentioned sustainability requirement since it was written in Java. This programming language has been exceptionally successful in business and enterprise computing since the compilation of Java source code into bytecode makes it ideal for distributed applications. As any Java application, Jas3 requires low maintenance and does not have platform-specific installation issues.

In 2016, a program called Jas4pp (“Jas for particle physics”) based on Jas3 was created at the Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) to accomplish physics and detector performance studies using a SiD-derived reconstruction software for the HepSim [12] repository. As a Java application, Jas4pp runs on any platform with Java installed, including Linux, MacOS and Windows OS. The time of deployment of Jas4pp is compatible with the time needed to download this program to a local computer since there are no platform-specific installation requirements.

This paper gives an introduction to the Jas4pp program. It will discuss multiple use cases, basic examples that illustrate its use and where to find the needed documentation. Section 4 will discuss several benchmarks to illustrate the performance of Java and dynamically-typed programming languages included with Jas4pp. The Appendix of this paper illustrates several advanced examples with data analysis in particle physics.