In your PhD you will develop the framework needed to develop the GPU farm, exploiting it as an offline analysis facility. The project will involve developing state of the art computing techniques in particle physics; we expect an analysis facility that incorporates GPU processors to provide a template for other experiments at the Large Hadron Collider and elsewhere. The work will be extended to exploit the CPU farm in a similar fashion. The development will involve liaising and working with computing experts at the experiment. Collaboration with the UK-wide SWIFT-HEP (SoftWare and InFrastructure Technology for High Energy Physics) project is also envisaged.
An advantage of GPU computing is the ability to run complex calculations and analyses that would otherwise take days or more to run on traditional CPU farms, for example tests of CP violation and QCD that involve computationally demanding fits to data. You will wotk with experts in Liverpool and the experiment to develop such a physics analysis, leveraging the GPU farm and GPU orientated software.
You will join the LHCb group at Liverpool and there will be opportunities to visit CERN, with an option to undertake a long-term attachment at CERN for a period of nine to twelve months.
This project has 3.5 years funding through STFC covering the student fees and PhD stipend. You would complete dedicated training in particle physics theory, detectors and analysis, with additional focused training for the LHCb experiment. The project would suit a student with an interest in particle physics, data analysis and computing.
To apply for a PhD position within our Particle Physics research group please contact the Particle Physics PhD Admissions director Professor Neil McCauley and also make a formal online application (here) to the University of Liverpool.
Back to: Department of Physics