Lessons from the Large Hadron Collider for model-based experimentation
The concept of a model of data acquisition and the scope of the hierarchy of models
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10812965 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Koray Karaca (0000-0002-5545-4443, University of Twente, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2018 |
| Volume | 195 |
| Issue | 12 |
| Pages | 5431-5452 |
| Publication date | 2018-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Synthese (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0039-7857 • E-ISSN: 1573-0964 |
| Publisher | Springer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1007/s11229-017-1453-5 |
| OpenAlex | W2603918977 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 10 |
| References cited | 26 |
According to the hierarchy of models (HoM) account of scientific experimentation developed by Patrick Suppes and elaborated by Deborah Mayo, theoretical considerations about the phenomena of interest are involved in an experiment through theoretical models that in turn relate to experimental data through data models, via the linkage of experimental models. In this paper, I dispute the HoM account in the context of present-day high-energy physics (HEP) experiments. I argue that even though the HoM account aims to characterize experimentation as a model-based activity, it does not involve a modeling concept for the process of data acquisition, and it thus fails to provide a model-based characterization of the theory-experiment relationship underlying this process. In order to characterize the foregoing relationship, I propose the concept of a model of data acquisition and illustrate it in the case of the ATLAS experiment at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, where the Higgs boson was discovered in 2012. I show that the process of data acquisition in the ATLAS experiment is performed according to a model of data acquisition that specifies and organizes the experimental procedures necessary to select the data according to a predetermined set of selection criteria. I also point out that this data acquisition model is theory-laden, in the sense that the underlying data selection criteria are determined by considering the testable predictions of the theoretical models that the ATLAS experiment is aimed to test. I take this sense of theory-ladenness to indicate that the relationship between the procedures of the ATLAS experiment and the theoretical models of the phenomena of interest is first established, prior to the formation of data models, through the data acquisition model of the experiment, thus not requiring the intermediary of other types of models as suggested by the HoM account. I therefore conclude that in the context of present-day HEP experiments, the HoM account does not consistently extend to the process of data acquisition so as to include models of data acquisition
Context (archaeology) · Data acquisition · Experimental data · Hierarchy problem · Large Hadron Collider · Model selection · Particle physics · Physics · Programming language · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · Mathematics · Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies · Philosophy and History of Science · Scientific Computing and Data Management
Empirical Underdetermination
A Network Account of Models in High Energy Physics Experiments
Analogue Quantum Simulation
The Positive Argument Against Scientific Realism
Polycratic hierarchies and networks
Model landscapes and event signatures in elementary particle physics
Effective integration and models of information
Bottoms up
Computer simulation in data analysis
Searching for Signatures
| Unique citing works | 10 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,67 |
| Citation span | 2020 - 2025 (6) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 8 |