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Aaron Carta Undergraduate Research Progress, Fall 2013 (view source)
Revision as of 21:23, 23 December 2013
, 21:23, 23 December 2013→ROOT
==ROOT==
==ROOT==
ROOT is a C/C++ based, object-oriented computing framework designed by CERN to efficiently process and analyze large amounts of data, e.g. from high-energy physics experiments. ROOT has an incorporated C/C++ intepreter, CINT, which is written in C++ itself.
The work I did learning C++ was most useful for ROOT. Trying to follow the construction of the Event Analyzer was one thing, creating new macros/scripts for use in ROOT, to facilitate data analysis, was a different matter entirely. My first successful endeavor was a relatively short macro, found on gluey at \home\acarta\ROOT\simplegraph.C, which allows for plotting measurements from a simple .txt file. I spent a good deal of time plotting and fitting measurements taken by Fridah Mokaya. It took me quite a while to get used to the objects and classes in ROOT, which differ from standard C++, as well as the various options and procedures for creating plots in ROOT. Especially troublesome was the use of the TCanvas objects, in particular trying to add multiple plots to the same canvas.
<gallery>
file:Test_spectrum.png | A sample plot from ROOT, created from some calibration measurments.
</gallery>
I initially thought that this macro would serve only as an exercise for my own benefit, but it turns out that my colleague John Bartolotta was able to use the simplegraph.C macro for his own work on the active collimator. The Labview program he is using apparently outputs .txt files, so this macro is well suited to his purposes. Since he was completely new to ROOT and programming at a later point in the semester, I spent some time working with him to help him get started on plots and fitting, which help give me a better grasp of ROOT as well.
Being able to construct and analyze histograms is more important for my own purposes, however. The analyzer is already equipped to construct histograms, but the data-files that I have been applying it to thus far are not suitable, as they contain no events. I was able to create some histograms using data from past lab classes, so once I resolve this particular issue, I should be able to get useful histograms from our DAQ station.
My immediate goal is to work towards resolving this issue during the winter intersession, after the Christmas holiday.