Testing the Quality of Data from FermiLab's FOCUS/E831 Experiment

The FOCUS/E831 experiment ran at Fermi National Lab from 1996 to 1997. In total, researchers recorded 6.5 billion photon interactions, resulting in 25 TB of information. Data was split into broad physics topics, and further divided into subtopics. The goal of this study was to identify the quality of data from Skim 1, Superstream 5. Based on our ability to see mesons within this data, we can determine whether the quality is high enough to allow us to see J/ψ. By observing J/ψ, we can better understand other excitation levels on the charmonium spectrum, which can help in studying Quantum Chromodynamics. This study also serves as a data preservation project as our team is finding use for long untouched data. The data was analyzed using Indiana University's Stanley 1 cluster, ROOT, and FSRoot, a ROOT utilities package. We were able to detect five of our nine desired mesons. Of the four reactions where no mesons were detected, it was determined that this was due to a lack of available data. The FOCUS/E831 data was deemed high enough quality data to locate J/ψ. For future research our team requires access to more data. This data may be sourced from FermiLab or other academic institutions. Once this data has been obtained, the same methods used in this study can be used to locate J/ψ.