Simulations for Discoveries at Fermilab

Abstract: The Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) is America’s particle physics and accelerator laboratory. Fermilab investigates energy and matter at the smallest and largest scales. The recent discovery of the Higgs Boson at the Large Hadron Collider in Europe, understanding neutrino oscillations by firing these particles through the earth’s crust to far away detectors, searching for new yet to be seen particles with precision measurements of the muon, waiting for dark matter to pass through detectors in deep underground mines, and constructing the world’s largest digital camera now mounted on a telescope in Chile to learn about the nature of dark energy are a sampling of the lab’s scientific program. All of these activities require simulations and modeling of physics and detectors in order to achieve results. In this colloquium, I will present several case studies of the various simulations performed, explain the often complicated mechanics of running the simulations on computing systems, discuss the many challenges we face, and offer ideas for the future.