SK Tutorials

Introduction to Super-Kamiokande

This page contains resources for students beginning to work on Super-Kamiokande (SK).

The first thing to do is to read some background information about the experiment.  After that, a series of tutorials are available to familiarize you with SK software and data.

The tutorials are now ready for use.  Let’s get ready for an adventure in SK software!
If you find any typos, or ways to improve the tutorials, please contact one of us in the Duke Neutrino Group.

Slides and papers with info on SK

Some slides by Kate Scholberg on neutrino physics and Super-K.  These are a bit out of date, but the core information is still good.

Slides 01/31/06: first introduction to Super-K data

Slides 02/06/06: Super-K physics I: neutrino oscillations

Slides 02/13/06: Super-K physics II: beam experiments

Slides 03/06/06: Super-K physics III: measuring the matrix

Slides 03/27/06: The SuperNova Early Warning System

A reading list put together by Kate (updated by Josh) for serious students starting on Super-K or T2K:
A reading list for serious students

Help on Linux

If you’re unfamiliar with Linux, you may want to look here, or try some tutorials, such as this one.

Help on Fortran and C++

Most of these tutorials will involve editing code written in Fortran or C++.  All the code examples now have versions in both languages.  If you’re unfamiliar with programming, it may be helpful to check out this C++ tutorial, or this Fortran tutorial (if you plan to go with Fortran).  Also, there is a note for the Fortran tutorial, if running at Duke).

Useful ROOT resources

Most of our data analysis work is done using a software package called ROOT.  ROOT was developed by our friends at CERN to do more or less everything, from storing data to multivariate analysis to plotting.  It’s commands are (more or less) based on C++, and its libraries can be compiled into C++ programs.  Since you will be using ROOT a lot, I highly recommend going over at least one of the following ROOT tutorials, some time before doing the “Step 3: Histograms!” Super-K tutorial (there’s a reminder at the beginning of that tutorial).

The documentation for ROOT is extensive, and sometimes confusing for a beginner, but it is quite thorough and useful.  Don’t get discouraged!

Super-K Tutorials

The tutorials here are intended for students beginning work on Super-Kamiokande.  Access to computers which have the SK software installed is required.

We now have versions of the tutorials in both fortran and C++.  Students planning to work specifically on SK software should, at the very least, familiarize themselves with how the Fortran code works.  Students whose focus will be other experiments of neutrino physics (such as T2K, HALO, or DUNE) may find the C++ versions more useful.  Both sets of tutorials go over the same things, the only reason to do a tutorial in both languages is to see how the code differs (it may be interesting).

In the tutorials, information that applies specifically to students at Duke is colored blue, and information specifically for the Kamioka computers is colored green.

Links to each of the tutorial steps, each on its own page.

Step 0: Computer Setup

Step 1: Superscan Tutorial

Step 2: First Code Example (Fortran | C++)

Step 3: Histograms! (Fortran | C++)

Step 4: Trees! (Fortran | C++)

Step 5: Monte Carlo Simulation

Step 6: Monte Carlo Tuning (Fortran | C++)

Some useful how-tos:

Software Tools

Various tools you may need:

Contact information:
For comments, questions, or whatever, please contact Kate or Chris.  You can also contact Josh, though he is leaving the group in July 2012, and may be difficult to contact.