=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-2406/paper1
|storemode=property
|title=Towards the Baikal Open Laboratory in
Astroparticle Physics
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2406/paper1.pdf
|volume=Vol-2406
|authors=Pavel Bezyazeekov,Igor Bychkov,Nikolay Budnev,Daria Chernykh,Yulia Kazarina,Dmitriy Kostunin,Alexander Kryukov,Roman Monkhoev,Alexey Shigarov,Dmitriy Shipilov
}}
==Towards the Baikal Open Laboratory in
Astroparticle Physics==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2406/paper1.pdf
Towards the Baikal Open Laboratory in
Astroparticle Physics
Pavel Bezyazeekov1 , Igor Bychkov2 , Nikolay Budnev1 , Daria Chernykh1 , Yulia
Kazarina1 , Dmitriy Kostunin3 , Alexander Kryukov4 , Roman Monkhoev1 ,
Alexey Shigarov2 , and Dmitriy Shipilov1
1
Applied Physics Institute, Irkutsk State University, Irkutsk, Russia
2
Matrosov Institute for System Dynamics and Control Theory, Siberian Branch of
Russian Academy of Sciences, Irkutsk, Russia
3
DESY, Zeuthen, Germany
4
Lomonosov Moscow State University, Skobeltsyn Institute of Nuclear Physics,
Moscow, Russia
Abstract. The open science framework defined in the German-Russian
Astroparticle Data Life Cycle Initiative (GRADLCI) has triggered ed-
ucational and outreach activities at the Irkutsk State University (ISU),
which is actively participated in the two major astroparticle facilities in
the region: TAIGA observatory and Baikal-GVD neutrino telescope. We
describe the ideas grew out of this unique environment and propose a
new open science laboratory based on education and outreach as well
as on the development and testing new methods and techniques for the
multimessenger astronomy.
Keywords: Astroparticle Physics · TAIGA observatory · Baikal-GVD
neutrino telescope · astroparticle.online · open data · open software ·
deep learning · Multimessenger Astronomy
1 Introduction
The only way to study the high-energy processes occurring outside our Galaxy
is to detect the radiation and ultra-high energy particles generated by these pro-
cesses. When colliding with the atmosphere these particles produce secondary
cascades, namely extensive air-showers (EAS). Reaching the surface of the Earth,
these cascades can cover areas of tens of square kilometers. However, with an
increase of the primary energy, the flux falls steeply, reaching one particle per
year per thousand square kilometers. It is a main reason why the modern as-
trophysics is moving towards consolidation and integration of facilities aimed at
the detection of various cosmic messengers [1].
The large-scale astroparticle physics implies the life cycle of experiments in
the order of few dozens years, what means the data will be acquired and analyzed
by the several generations of the physicists. Thus, not only the data life cycle has
to be properly maintained for the sustainability of experiments, but the human
aspects, e.g. training and continuity, have to be taken into account as well.
In this work we continue development of the outreach and educational frame-
work declared in the German-Russian Astroparticle Data Life Cycle Initiative [2].
Tightly connected to the Data Life Cycle, this framework requires open data and
software policies and aimed at the training of future experts in the astroparticle
physics as well as at the outreach of this field.
In our case we have a unique environment, which allows us develop towards
establishing of the Baikal Open Laboratory in Astroparticle Physics:
– International GRADLCI framework provides an informational support for
our activity (e.g. platform astroparticle.online) and increases a visibility
of outreach and education activity related to astrophysics.
– Cooperation with astrophysical facilities in Baikal region, namely with TAIGA
(Tunka Advanced Instrument for cosmic rays and Gamma Astronomy) ob-
servatory [3] and Baikal-GVD (GigaVolume Detector) neutrino telescope [4]
helps us to stay connected with high-level experimental astrophysics. More-
over, the historical, geographical and infrastructure connections between
these experiments and members of GRADLCI enhance the integration of
data life cycle and open data policies into operating experiments and gives
unique options for testing of these policies.
– Educational resources at the Irkutsk State University (ISU). Besides bachelor
and master programs in particle and astroparticle physics, ISU organizes two
famous international schools in this field, namely Baikal Young Scientists’
International School on Fundamental Physics5 and Baikal Summer School
on Physics of Elementary Particles and Astrophysics6 . This educational ac-
tivity and participation in TAIGA and Baikal-GVD make ISU efficient and
prospective for the training of the experts in the field.
Within these conditions we can effectively work on the challenges facing data
and knowledge conservation, moreover we can test and evaluate our methods and
approaches. The neighborhood of the experiments measuring different messen-
gers (TAIGA – gamma and Baikal-GVD – neutrino) and the large educational
center (ISU) naturally lead one to the Baikal Multimessenger concept, a testbed
for the future multimessenger activity, which can be started within suggested
Open Laboratory.
2 The pillars of the Baikal Open Laboratory
The main objectives of the future Open Laboratory are training experts and
developing new instruments and methods for the multimessenger astronomy as
well as supporting open software and open data initiatives. Taking this and the
present environment into account we can define the main pillars of it:
– Development open training programs. All programs and their sources (i.e.
scripts, slides, problems, etc.) developed in the frame of this Laboratory will
5
http://bsfp.iszf.irk.ru/
6
https://astronu.jinr.ru/school/current
be published online under free license and can be adopted by the third-party
institutes and lecturers. These lectures and seminars will be given at ISU
(see below) and kept alive and updated.
– Focus on modern IT and open source solutions. The modern physics analysis
suffers from the lack of the experts in big data and deep learning. We plan to
spend significant efforts on training of these experts during their education at
ISU, attracting new experts and trying to save them in science. Additionally
we will focus on data analysis using modern methods [5].
– Interaction between different facilities. The multimessenger astronomy im-
plies data transfer between astroparticle experiments, which can be compli-
cated by the data policies established by the different collaborations. Within
experiments located in the Baikal region we will focus on the policies, ex-
change protocols and software for the multimessenger astronomy.
3 The current status of the development of Laboratory
For the time being there are few directions of the development of laboratory:
online platform, offline course and training with operating experiments.
3.1 Online platform
At the very beginning of GRADLCI we have established astroparticle.online,
which aims at the following:
– Web-interface for the open data services developed in the frame of GRADLCI.
For details see Refs. [6,7,8].
– Educational and outreach materials in astroparticle physics, including VISPA-
like interactive services [9].
– Enhancing the communication between astrophysics. We try to support net-
working by providing platform for partner experiments7 , schools and events.
For the time being the portal is under construction, and the content is being
filling. We have successfully tested the pilot version (see Fig. 1) of it at the
ISAPP-Baikal Summer school8 as a collaboration framework. Moreover, the in-
formational and interactive part of a new regular ISU course described below
will be deployed within the portal. The servers of the platform have been de-
ployed at the Matrosov Institute for System Dynamics and Control Theory9 . At
the very beginning we have used the open-source HUBzero platform [10], how-
ever due to numerous technical problems and difficulties, it was decided to move
to the widely used WordPress10 and deploy all necessary plugins (e.g. VISPA)
separately.
7
see, e.g. tunka-21cm.astroparticle.online and almarac.astroparticle.online
8
https://astronu.jinr.ru/school/archive/school-2018
9
http://idstu.irk.ru/en
10
https://wordpress.com/
Fig. 1. Screenshot of the Baikal-ISAPP summer school page on pilot version of
astroparticle.online.
3.2 Offline educational course on astroparticle physics
The Faculty of Physics of ISU has been established more than a century ago, has
a long history connected to physics and astrophysics, and many of the graduates
of the Faculty work in the leading research institutes organizations around the
world. Moreover, the students and graduates get an opportunity to work in
TAIGA observatory and Baikal-GVD neutrino telescope during the study, many
of them write bachelor and master theses in the frame of these experiments.
Since ISU makes a great contribution to these experiments, we have decided to
develop a new regular course “Introduction to experimental astroparticle physics”
for the bachelor and master students. The course includes lectures, practical and
laboratory works.
The theoretical part of the course consists of about ten lectures devoted to the
ultra-high-energy cosmic rays, their origin and acceleration mechanisms, cosmic
ray energy spectrum and its features, cosmic ray detection methods, gamma-
and neutrino astronomy features, review of the largest astrophysical facilities.
The seminars of the course are focused on applied knowledge of simulations
and data analysis. We give an introduction to a major programming languages,
namely C/C++ and Python, to a main analysis frameworks, namely ROOT11 ,
numpy, scipy and matplotlib. As a result of this course, students are able
to solve problems in the modern data analysis. The materials of the course are
open-source and published online12 .
11
http://root.cern
12
https://bitbucket.org/tunka/ap-seminar-latex/
Fig. 2. Laboratory setups developed for the astroparticle course. Left: The telescope
for studying the secondary component of cosmic rays. Top right: The stand for study-
ing the fluctuations of ionization losses. Bottom right: The stand for study the main
characteristics of photomultipliers (PMT).
In the frame of this course three laboratory setups (see Fig. 2) have been
developed to familiarize students with the astrophysics detectors. Students per-
form measurements on these setups, and analyze and interpret the data using
knowledge obtained on the lectures and seminars.
As it was mentioned before, the materials and interactive part of the course
will be incorporated in astroparticle.online.
3.3 Training with operating experiments
As was mentioned above, the students of ISU as well as visiting students have
an opportunity to work with real hardware, software and data of TAIGA and
Baikal-GVD. We have an established workflow for the young scientists, which
includes interview, training, data analysis and simulation, field works, etc. This
workflow has shown its efficiency, what has resulted in a number of significant
results obtained by the young members of collaborations (see, e.g. [11,12]).
4 Conclusion
After the years of the development of astrophysical experiments in the Baikal
region we are ready to make a step further and establish an educational and
outreach unit focused on multimessenger astronomy and open science. Having
unique environment “on-site” (ISU + TAIGA + Baikal-GVD), it is possible to
develop and evaluate modern astrophysical methods and techniques very fast and
efficient. We have started from the open science activity declared in the frame
of GRADLCI and are going to expand this to the Baikal Open Laboratory in
Astroparticle Physics. We hope that the future cooperation with GRADLCI will
help us to share our ideas and progress to the global astroparticle community.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by Russian Science Foundation Grant 18-41-06003
(Section 3), by the Helmholtz Society Grant HRSF-0027 and by the Russian
Federation Ministry of Education and Science (projects 14.593.21.0005 (Tunka
shared core facilities, unique identificator RFMEFI59317X0005), 3.10131.2017/NM,
2017-14-595-0001-003, 3.9678.2017/8.9, 3.904.2017/4.6). We are grateful to the
members of the GRADLCI for the informational support of our activity.
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