• DOI:10.22323/1.236.1005
• Corpus ID: 119249218

Testing a Novel Self-Assembling Data Paradigm in the Context of IACT Data

@article{Weinstein2015TestingAN,
  title={Testing a Novel Self-Assembling Data Paradigm in the Context of IACT Data},
  author={Amanda J. Weinstein and Lucy Fortson and Thomas Brantseg and Cameron B Rulten and Robyn R. Lutz and Jarvis D. Haupt and Mojtaba Kadkhodaie Elyaderani and J. Quinn},
  journal={arXiv: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics},
  year={2015}
}

• A. Weinstein, L. Fortson, +5 authors J. Quinn
• Published 7 September 2015
• Physics
• arXiv: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics

The process of gathering and associating data from multiple sensors or sub-detectors due to a common physical event (the process of event-building) is used in many fields, including high-energy physics and $\gamma$-ray astronomy. Fault tolerance in event-building is a challenging problem that increases in difficulty with higher data throughput rates and increasing numbers of sub-detectors. We draw on biological self-assembly models in the development of a novel event-building paradigm that treats each packet of data from an individual sensor or sub-detector as if it were a molecule in solution. Just as molecules are capable of forming chemical bonds, "bonds" can be defined between data packets using metadata-based discriminants. A database -- which plays the role of a beaker of solution -- continually selects pairs of assemblies at random to test for bonds, which allows single packets and small assemblies to aggregate into larger assemblies. During this process higher-quality associations supersede spurious ones. The database thereby becomes fluid, dynamic, and self-correcting rather than static. We will describe tests of the self-assembly paradigm using our first fluid database prototype and data from the VERITAS $\gamma$-ray telescope.