GPU-based optical photon simulation for the LHCb RICH 1 Detector

TL;DR

This paper explores using GPU-accelerated Opticks to speed up optical photon simulation in the LHCb RICH 1 detector, integrating it with Geant4 for faster overall performance while ensuring result consistency.

Contribution

It introduces a hybrid workflow combining Geant4 and Opticks, demonstrating GPU acceleration of optical photon propagation in high-energy physics simulations.

Findings

GPU acceleration significantly reduces simulation time.

Results from Opticks match Geant4, confirming accuracy.

Discusses transition to NVIDIA OptiX 7 API.

Abstract

We present the investigation of the use of Opticks, a GPU-accelerated optical photon interface with the LHCb detector simulation, to improve computation time of optical photon propagation. The hybrid workflow, combining the particle simulation package Geant4 and Opticks, offloads optical photon propagation to GPUs, thereby accelerating the overall simulation process. The consistency of the results obtained from Geant4 and Opticks simulations is verified with a simplified LHCb RICH 1 detector geometry, demonstrating the feasibility of the proposed approach. In addition, the ongoing transition to the NVIDIA OptiX 7 API and re-structuring of Opticks code is discussed within the context of HEP simulation workflows, with caveats explored.