Visualization of Scientific Data for High Energy Physics: Basic Architecture and a Case Study

Visualization of scientific data although a fashionable word in the world of computer graphics, is not a new invention, but it is hundreds years old; examples of Visualization of Scientific Data are dating back since 1700. With the advent of computer graphics the Visualization of Scientific Data has now become a well understood and widely used technology, with hundreds of applications in the most different fields, ranging from media applications to real scientific ones.

In this paper, we discuss the design concepts of the Visualization of Scientific Data systems in particular in the specific field of High Energy Physics, at CERN. Then an example of a practical implementation is given.

“… a computer display enables us to examine the structure of a man-made mathematical world simulated entirely within an electronic mechanism. I think of a computer display as a window on Alice’s Wonderland in which a programmer can depict either objects that obey well-known natural laws or purely imaginary objects that follows laws he has written into his program.

Through computer displays I have landed an airplane on the deck of a moving carrier, observed a nuclear particle hit a potential well, flown in a rocket at nearly the speed of light and watched a computer reveal its innermost workings”.

1