CACR Research: DANSE

DANSE
Distributed Data Analysis for Neutron Scattering Experiments

CACR Contact: Michael Aivazis
Email: aivazis at cacr.caltech.edu
Website: http://wiki.cacr.caltech.edu/danse/index.php/Main_Page

DANSE is a software development project on distributed data analysis for neutron scattering experiments. You are welcome to browse this site to find documentation on the software or neutron scattering, and to make comments in the public access pages. Anyone working on the DANSE project is encouraged to request an account and access to the editing capabilities of this MediaWiki. The DANSE project was prompted by the development of the Spallation Neutron Source (http://www.sns.gov) (the “SNS”), under construction in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. In 2006 the SNS will start to produce intense beams of neutrons to be used as probes of materials, molecules, and condensed matter. The instruments that control these beams, and detect the neutrons scattered from specimens, are state-of-the-art. Neutron scattering experiments performed at the SNS will produce data of unprecedented detail on the positions and motions of atoms and spins in materials, molecules, and condensed matter. The raw experimental data acquired with these instruments are not simple to interpret, and new software is required to transform the data into useful forms. Beyond such data reductions that are available today, there is an opportunity to interpret data using several major advances in computational materials science that have occurred over the past decade. The goals of the DANSE project are to build a software system that 1) enables new and more sophisticated science to be performed with neutron scattering experiments, 2) makes the analysis of data easier for all scientists, and 3) provides a robust software infrastructure that can be maintained in the future.