Experimental high-energy physics

The São Paulo Research and Analysis Center (SPRACE) was established in 2003 to support the participation in major high energy physics experiments. The group was part of the DZero Collaboration from Fermilab since 1999 and became member of the CERN CMS experiment in 2004. The main contribution of the SPRACE group to these collaborations has been on the processing and analysis of the data collected by the experiments. We have been exploring two important branches of fundamental science: the search for new phenomena beyond the Standard Model and the physics of quark-gluon plasma produced in heavy-ion collisions.

The SPRACE group includes:

Sérgio F. Novaes (IFT-UNESP)

Sandra S. Padula (IFT-UNESP)


Sunil M. Dogra (IFT-UNESP)


Eduardo de M. Gregores (UFABC)


Pedro G. Mercadante (UFABC)

The SPRACE group has been operating a Tier-2 class site (BR-SP-SPRACE) of the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG) together with the United States Tier-2’s from Caltech, Florida, MIT, Nebraska, Purdue, UCSD, Vanderbilt, and Wisconsin. BR-SP-SPRACE is the only official Tier-2 in Latin America and its operation has been a remarkable success. The expertise acquired by the group with the implementation of the SPRACE Cluster generated an important spin-off: the deployment of the first Campus Grid in Latin America – GridUNESP – that operates in close association with the US Open Science Grid (OSG) infrastructure.
The SPRACE group intends to maintain its successful role in the investigation of physical phenomena through the analysis of the data produced by the LHC, with the essential support provided by prominent theoretical physicists of different institutions.