The High Level Trigger and Express Data Production at STAR

TL;DR

The STAR experiment developed a dual real-time data processing framework with a High Level Trigger and Express Data Production system to enable rapid event selection, calibration, and analysis during the Beam Energy Scan phase-II at RHIC.

Contribution

This paper introduces a novel dual real-time framework combining HLT and xProduction for efficient data processing and analysis in high-energy physics experiments.

Findings

Enabled prompt reconstruction of hypernuclei

Demonstrated scalability for high-luminosity experiments

Provided rapid, analysis-ready datasets for collaboration

Abstract

To meet the demands of the Beam Energy Scan phase-II (BES-II) program, the STAR experiment at RHIC developed a dual real-time framework consisting of a High Level Trigger (HLT) and an Express Data Production system (xProduction). The HLT operates online within the Data Acquisition (DAQ) chain on a multicore CPU cluster, with optional acceleration using Xeon Phi coprocessors. It employs parallelized algorithms, such as the Cellular Automaton track finder, for fast tracking, vertexing, and event filtering, enabling real-time event selection and detector monitoring. In parallel, xProduction runs independently of the DAQ loop and performs near offline-quality calibration and reconstruction within hours. Using the express data stream, enhanced by HLT selections, and the STAR calibration framework, it enables early physics analysis and provides collaboration-wide access to analysis-ready datasets. Together, HLT and xProduction form a complementary system combining real-time selection with rapid high-quality reconstruction. This framework has enabled prompt reconstruction of the ${}^5_{\Lambda}\mathrm{He}$ hypernucleus and efficient processing of large datasets, demonstrating scalability for future high-luminosity experiments.