Get Started: ALICE physics
PHYSICS PART (version 1.1)
1) ALICE experiment and its physics programme
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When coming to CERN in order to work in the Alice experiment you are expected to know its physics scope ane programme.
There is a lot of documentation on this topic, the basic information can be found in the Technical Design Reports http://aliweb.cern.ch/Documents/TDR/index.html
It would be also useful to get familiar with the ever increasing list of Alice publications, which can be consulted at http://aliweb.cern.ch/Documents/generalpublications. The drafts of the future publications and the internal discussion on them can be found on the special collaboration page https://espace.cern.ch/alice-discussions/default.aspx.
Note that in order to access it you will need to give your login in the form "cern\NICElogin" followed by your Nice password. More technical Alice notes and documentation can be searched and consulted via the EDMS pages https://edms.cern.ch/cedar/plsql/cedarw.site_home
2) How to find what are ongoing acitvities
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There is a lot of ongoing activities related to the different stages of the data analysis.They are mainly concentrated in the 4 Physics Working Groups http://aliweb.cern.ch/Physics/index.html In addition there is a lot of less formal (sub)groups created for solving more specific problems or aimed at the preparation of the specific future publications. The main information exchange on the progress in different fields of activity is done via the meetings which can be assisted also remotely via the electronic conferencing tool EVO http://evo.caltech.edu/evoGate/.
Past meetings presentations can be viewed via INDICO system https://indico.cern.ch/categoryDisplay.py?categId=1l8 A lot of material on the ongoing analysis and results can be found on the Twiki pages maintained by all the PWGs and the specific Alice subsystems https://twiki.cern.ch/twiki/bin/view/ALICE/WebHome
3) How to start your work in Alice
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You are supposed to join one of the Alice teams corresponding best to your current interests and skills.In order to get more informations you can contact coordinators of the PWGs, their names are accessible here http://aliweb.cern.ch/Physics/index.html
Assuming that you have got already your computer account and the Grid certificate http://alien.cern.ch/twiki/bin/view/Alice/UserRegistration and got familiar with some basic documentation and tutorials http://aliweb.cern.ch/Offline/ https://indico.cern.ch/conferenceDisplay.py?confId=87136 you can start from uploading the basic Alice software that is ROOT, Geant3 and AliRoot (detailed instructions can be found via the Offline link given above). Another option is to use the standard software version available on the Lxplus CERN system. Then the next step could be to have a look at the existing examples (e.g. $ALICE_ROOT/ANALYSIS/examples within the AliRoot package) of simple tasks and try to execute them either locally or on CAF http://aaf.cern.ch/ or eventually directly on the Grid. http://alien2.cern.ch/ Once your template task works successfully it is relatively easy to adapt and/or change it according to your needs.
It is highly recommended for the newcomers to scan some Alice events using for that purpose a dedicated PC (pcalice66) placed in Alice common computer room (near to Alice secretariat. The instructions how to proceed are near to the PC. This very instructive activity helps to get familiar with the different reconstruction objects (tracks, vertices, kinks, V0s etc) and also with the Alice detectors used for data reconstruction. Once you gain some experience in event scanning it becomes easier also to understand different aspects of the reconstruction and analysis problems !
4) More advanced data nalysis
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Once you are familiar with running simple jobs in different modes you can move to a larger scale analysis which means mainly usage of the Grid. http://alien2.cern.ch To monitor GRID activity one uses the MonaLisa system http://pcalimonitor.cern.ch/map.jsp which contains a lot of tools enabling visualisation of the Grid status and a lot of other Grid oriented informations. Between others one can find here the information on the available data and their quality in the form of the Run Condition Tables (RCT - one table per each data taking period) http://alimonitor.cern.ch/configuration/
5) How to take part in running the Alice experiment
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In case if you are also interested in the Online systems (DAQ, DCS, HLT) and in taking part in running the experiment, you are supposed to take some shifts. In this case you have to go carefully through the Run Coordination pages http://aliweb.cern.ch/Run_Coordination/Run09/index.html in order to learn what are the preliminary steps before starting this activity. The shifts booking is normally done through the system called SMS https://alicesms.cern.ch/ It is quite possible that you will not find the shifts free slots for booking, nevertheless you can always join the active shifters as a trainee. For understanding different aspects and problems in running the Alice experiment it is very instructive to consult the electronic logbook https://alice-logbook.cern.ch/logbook/date_online.php?p_cont=lc&p_cpn=1&... Note that in order to get a logbook write permission you need to be a qualified shifter and ask an authorization from the DAQ system coordinator.
6) Problems troubleshooting
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There is a lot of experts around in the Alice Collaboration you can contact for solving specific problems but if you do not know who is who or if you simply feel lost please contact Adam.Jacholkowski@cern.ch first. He is the person assumed to help you and guide in the complex Alice Wonderland. For more administrative oriented problems you can be helped by Ulla Tihinen from the Alice Secretariat.
7) Some frequenly used abbreviations(?)
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8) FAQs - to come later
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