CERN Accelerating science

Starting this year, the upgraded LHCb detector is collecting data with a pure software trigger. In its first stage, reducing the rate from 30MHz to about 1MHz, GPUs are used to reconstruct and trigger on B and D meson topologies and high-pT objects in the event. In its second stage, a CPU farm is used to reconstruct the full event and perform candidate selections, which are persisted for offline use with an output rate of about 10GB/s. Fast data processing, flexible and custom-designed data structures tailored for SIMD architectures and efficient storage of the intermediate data at various steps of the processing pipeline onto persistent media, e.g. tapes is essential to guarantee the full physics program of LHCb. In this talk, we will present the event model and data persistency developments for the trigger of LHCb in run 3. Particular emphasize will be given to the novel software-design aspects with respect to the Run 1+2 data taking, the performance improvements which can be achieved and the experience of restructuring a major part of the reconstruction software in a large HEP experiment.

Beginning in 2021, the upgraded LHCb experiment will use a triggerless readout system collecting data at an event rate of 30 MHz. A software-only High Level Trigger will enable unprecedented flexibility for trigger selections. During the first stage (HLT1), a sub-set of the full offline track reconstruction for charged particles is run to select particles of interest based on single or two-track selections. After this first stage, the event rate is reduced by at least a factor 30. Track reconstruction at 30 MHz represents a significant computing challenge, requiring a renovation of current algorithms and the underlying hardware. In this talk we present work based on an R&D project in the context of the LHCb Upgrade I exploring the approach of executing the full HLT1 chain on GPUs. This includes decoding the raw data, clustering of hits, pattern recognition, as well as track fitting. We will discuss the development of algorithms optimized for many-core architectures. Both the computing and physics performance of the full HLT1 chain will be presented.

The LHCb detector at the LHC is a general purpose detector in the forward region with a focus on studying decays of c- and b-hadrons. For Run 3 of the LHC (data taking foreseen from 2022), LHCb will take data at an instantaneous luminosity of 2 × 10^{33} cm−2 s−1, five times higher than in Run 2 (2015-2018). To cope with the harsher data taking conditions, LHCb will deploy a purely software based trigger with a 30 MHz input rate. The software trigger at LHCb is composed of two stages: in the first stage the selection is based on a fast and simplified event reconstruction, while in the second stage a full event reconstruction is used. This gives room to perform a real-time alignment and calibration after the first trigger stage, allowing to have an offline-quality detector alignment in the second stage of the trigger. The detector alignment is an essential ingredient to have the best detector performance in the full event reconstruction. The alignment of the whole tracking system of LHCb is evaluated in real-time by an automatic iterative procedure. The data collected at the start of the fill are processed in a few minutes to update the alignment before running the second stage of the trigger. This in turn allows the trigger output data to be used for physics analysis without a further offline event reconstruction. The motivation for a real-time alignment of the LHCb detector in Run 3 is discussed from both the technical and operational point of view. Specific challenges of this strategy are presented, as well as the working procedures of the framework.