Monte Carlo Generator Research Articles

Geant4 hadronic physics for space radiation environment

Purpose: To test and to develop Geant4 (Geometry And Tracking version 4) Monte Carlo hadronic models with focus on applications in a space radiation environment.Materials and methods: The Monte Carlo simulations have been performed using the Geant4 toolkit. Binary (BIC), its extension for incident light ions (BIC-ion) and Bertini (BERT) cascades were used as main Monte Carlo generators. For comparisons purposes, some other models were tested too. The hadronic testing suite has been used as a primary tool for model development and validation against experimental data.Results: The Geant4 pre-compound (PRECO) and de-excitation (DEE) models were revised and improved. Proton, neutron, pion, and ion nuclear interactions were simulated with the recent version of Geant4 9.4 and were compared with experimental data from thin and thick target experiments.Conclusions: The Geant4 toolkit offers a large set of models allowing effective simulation of interactions of particles with matter. We have tested different Monte Carlo generators with our hadronic testing suite and accordingly we can propose an optimal configuration of Geant4 models for the simulation of the space radiation environment.

PHOKHARA 7.0 Monte Carlo generator: the narrow resonances implementation and new pion and kaon form factors

Experiments at high luminosity electron-positron colliders allow to study the kaon and the pion form factors in the time-like region up to high energies. Also the kaon and the pion pair production at and around the narrow resonances J/psi and psi(2S) can be investigated, with the interference between electromagnetic and hadronic amplitudes as one of the most interesting phenomenas. Parameterisations of charged and neutral kaon as well as pion form factors, which lead to an improved description of the data in the region of large invariant masses of the meson pair, are presented. They are implemented into the Monte Carlo generator PHOKHARA, together with the hadronic couplings of charged and neutral kaons to J/psi and psi(2S). The physics case as well as details of the implementation are discussed.

TAUOLA for simulation of tau decay and production: perspectives for precision low energy and LHC applications

The status of Monte Carlo system for the simulation of tau-lepton production and decay in high-energy accelerator experiments is reviewed. Since previous tau-lepton conference in 2008 some practical modifications have been introduced: (i) For the TAUOLA Monte Carlo generator of tau-lepton decays, automated and simultaneous use of many versions of form-factors for the calculation of optional weights for fits was developped and checked to work in Belle and BaBar software environment. Work on alternative paramterizations of hadronic decays is advanced. (ii) the TAUOLA universal interface based on HepMC (the C++ event record) is now public. A similar interface for PHOTOS is now also public. (iii) Extension of PHOTOS Monte Carlo for QED bremsstrahlung in decays featuring kernels based on complete first order matrix element are gradually becoming widely available thanks to properites of the new, HepMC based interface. (iv) Tests of the programs systematized with the help of MC-TESTER are now available for FORTRAN and C++ users. Presented here results illustrate the status of the projects performed in collaboration with Nadia Davidson, Piotr Golonka, Gizo Nanava, Tomasz Przedzinski, Olga Shekhovtsova, El zbieta Richter-Was, Pablo Roig, Qingjun Xu and others.

$ {W^\pm }b\bar{b} $ production in POWHEG

We present an implementation of the next-to-leading order hadronic production of a W boson in association with a pair of massive bottom quarks in the framework of POWHEG, a method to consistently interface NLO QCD calculations with shower Monte Carlo generators. The process has been implemented using the POWHEG BOX, an automated computer code that sistematically applies the POWHEG method to NLO QCD calculations. Spin correlations in the decay of the W boson into leptons have been taken into account using standard approximated techniques. We present phenomenological results for W b bbar-> l nu b bbar production, at both the Tevatron and the LHC, obtained by showering the POWHEG results with PYTHIA and HERWIG, and we discuss the outputs of the two different shower Monte Carlo programs.

NNLO leptonic and hadronic corrections to Bhabha scattering and luminosity monitoring at meson factories

Virtual fermionic N_f = 1 and N_f = 2 contributions to Bhabha scattering are combined with realistic real corrections at next-to-next-to-leading order in QED. The virtual corrections are determined by the package bha_nnlo_hf, and real corrections with the Monte Carlo generators Bhagen-1Ph, Helac-Phegas and Ekhara. Numerical results are discussed at the energies of and with realistic cuts used at the Phi factory DAFNE, at the B factories PEP-II and KEK, and at the charm/tau factory BEPC II. We compare these complete calculations with the approximate ones realized in the generator BabaYaga@NLO used at meson factories to evaluate their luminosities. For realistic reference event selections we find agreement for the NNLO leptonic and hadronic corrections within 0.07% or better and conclude that they are well accounted for in the generator by comparison with the present experimental accuracy.

Monte-Carlo generator photon jets for the process e + e −→γγ

Monte-Carlo generator with photon jets radiation in collinear regions for the process \eegg is described in detail. Radiative corrections in the first order of $\alpha$ are treated exactly. Large leading logarithmic corrections coming from collinear regions are taken into account in all orders of $\alpha$ by applying the Structure Function approach. Theoretical precision of the cross section with radiative corrections is estimated to be 0.2%. This process is considered as an additional tool to measure luminosity in forthcoming experiments with the CMD-3 detector at the $e^+e^-$ collider VEPP-2000.

Transverse Target Moments of SIDIS Vector Meson Production at HERMES

The on-going analysis of the transverse target (AUT) moments of the non-collinear cross section for SIDIS dihadron production at Hermes is discussed. These moments access the transversity (h1), pretzelocity (h⊥1T), and Sivers (f⊥1T) distribution functions convoluted with the unpolarized (D1) and Collins (H1) dihadron fragmentation functions. This measurement allows greater insight into the flavor decomposition and factorization of these functions. Additionally, the results will test the Lund/Artru fragmentation model, which predicts a sign change in the Collins function between pseudo-scalar mesons and certain partial waves of vector mesons. In preparation for this analysis, a new Monte Carlo generator has been written, and non-collinear fragmentation functions have been computed in a spectator model. Additionally, an alternate partial wave expansion is presented, providing a complementary interpretation of the fragmentation functions and allowing computation of the next-to-leading twist cross section.

Measurements of underlying-event properties using neutral and charged particles in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}=900$ GeV and $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

We present first measurements of charged and neutral particle-flow correlations in pp collisions using the ATLAS calorimeters. Data were collected in 2009 and 2010 at centre-of-mass energies of 900 GeV and 7 TeV. Events were selected using a minimum-bias trigger which required a charged particle in scintillation counters on either side of the interaction point. Particle flows, sensitive to the underlying event, are measured using clusters of energy in the ATLAS calorimeters, taking advantage of their fine granularity. No Monte Carlo generator used in this analysis can accurately describe the measurements. The results are independent of those based on charged particles measured by the ATLAS tracking systems and can be used to constrain the parameters of Monte Carlo generators.

Thrust atN3LLwith power corrections and a precision global fit forαs(mZ)

We give a factorization formula for the e+e- thrust distribution dsigma/dtau with tau=1-T based on soft-collinear effective theory. The result is applicable for all tau, i.e. in the peak, tail, and far-tail regions. The formula includes O(alphas^3) fixed-order QCD results, resummation of singular partonic alphas^j ln^k(tau)/tau terms with N^3LL accuracy, hadronization effects from fitting a universal nonperturbative soft function defined in field theory, bottom quark mass effects, QED corrections, and the dominant top mass dependent terms from the axial anomaly. We do not rely on Monte Carlo generators to determine nonperturbative effects since they are not compatible with higher order perturbative analyses. Instead our treatment is based on fitting nonperturbative matrix elements in field theory, which are moments Omega_i of a nonperturbative soft function. We present a global analysis of all available thrust data measured at center-of-mass energies Q=35 to 207 GeV in the tail region, where a two parameter fit to $\alpha_s(m_Z)$ and the first moment Omega_1 suffices. We use a short distance scheme to define Omega_1, called the R-gap scheme, thus ensuring that the perturbative dsigma/dtau does not suffer from an O(Lambda_QCD) renormalon ambiguity. We find alphas(mZ)=0.1135 \pm (0.0002)_{expt} \pm (0.0005)_{hadr} \pm (0.0009)_{pert}, with chi^2/dof=0.91, where the displayed 1-sigma errors are the total experimental error, the hadronization uncertainty, and the perturbative theory uncertainty, respectively. The hadronization uncertainty in alphas is significantly decreased compared to earlier analyses by our two parameter fit, which determines Omega_1=0.323 GeV with 16% uncertainty.

Azimuthal decorrelations and multiple parton interactions inγ+2jet andγ+3jet events inpp¯collisions ats=1.96 TeV

Samples of inclusive photon+2 jet and photon+3 jet events collected by the D0 experiment with an integrated luminosity of about 1fb^-1 in ppbar collisions at sqrt{s}=1.96 TeV are used to measure cross sections as a function of the angle in the plane transverse to the beam direction between the transverse momentum (pT) of the photon+leading jet system (jets are ordered in pT) and pT of the other jet for photon+2 jet, or pT sum of the two other jets for photon+3 jet events. The results are compared to different models of multiple parton interactions (MPI) in the PYTHIA and SHERPA Monte Carlo (MC) generators. The data indicate a contribution from events with double parton (DP) interactions and are well described by predictions provided by the PYTHIA MPI models with pT-ordered showers and by SHERPA with the default MPI model. The photon+2 jet data are also used to determine the fraction of events with DP interactions as a function of the azimuthal angle and as a function of the second jet pT.

Study of jet shapes in inclusive jet production inppcollisions ats=7 TeVusing the ATLAS detector

Jet shapes have been measured in inclusive jet production in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV using 3 pb^{-1} of data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. Jets are reconstructed using the anti-kt algorithm with transverse momentum 30 GeV < pT < 600 GeV and rapidity in the region |y| < 2.8. The data are corrected for detector effects and compared to several leading-order QCD matrix elements plus parton shower Monte Carlo predictions, including different sets of parameters tuned to model fragmentation processes and underlying event contributions in the final state. The measured jets become narrower with increasing jet transverse momentum and the jet shapes present a moderate jet rapidity dependence. Within QCD, the data test a variety of perturbative and non-perturbative effects. In particular, the data show sensitivity to the details of the parton shower, fragmentation, and underlying event models in the Monte Carlo generators. For an appropriate choice of the parameters used in these models, the data are well described.

Monte Carlo treatment of hadronic interactions in enhanced Pomeron scheme: QGSJET-II model

The construction of a Monte Carlo generator for high energy hadronic and nuclear collisions is discussed in detail. Interactions are treated in the framework of the Reggeon Field Theory, taking into consideration enhanced Pomeron diagrams which are resummed to all orders in the triple-Pomeron coupling. Soft and "semihard" contributions to the underlying parton dynamics are accounted for within the "semihard Pomeron" approach. The structure of cut enhanced diagrams is analyzed; they are regrouped into a number of subclasses characterized by positively defined contributions which define partial weights for various "macro-configurations" of hadronic final states. An iterative procedure for a Monte Carlo generation of the structure of final states is described. The model results for hadronic cross sections and for particle production are compared to experimental data.

Heavy flavour production at Tevatron and parton shower effects

We present hadron-level predictions from the Monte Carlo generator Cascade and numerical calculations of charm and beauty production at the Fermilab Tevatron within the framework of the k T -factorization QCD approach. Our consideration is based on the CCFM-evolved unintegrated gluon densities in a proton. The performed analysis covers the total and differential cross sections of open charm and beauty quarks, B and D mesons (or rather muons from their semileptonic decays) and the total and differential cross sections of $ b\bar{b} $ di-jet hadroproduction. We study the theoretical uncertainties of our calculations and investigate the effects coming from parton showers in initial and final states. Our predictions are compared with the recent experimental data taken by the D0 and CDF collaborations. Special attention is put on the specific angular correlations between the final-state particles. We demonstrate that the final state parton shower plays a crucial role in the description of such observables. The decorrelated part of angular separations can be fully described, if the process gg ∗ → gg is included.

Comparison of Hadronic Interaction Models with LHC data

The uncertainty in the prediction of shower observables for different primary particles and energies is currently dominated by differences between hadronic interaction models. Since the end of 2009, LHC data has become available for proton-proton scattering at different energies, extending to the reach of collider data. The LHC data on minimum bias measurements can be used to test Monte Carlo generators and these new constrains will help to reduce the uncertainties in air shower predictions. In this contribution, we will show the results of the comparison between the currently used high energy hadronic interaction models and LHC data. Implications for air shower simulations will be discussed.

Electroweak radiative corrections to single top production

Radiative corrections to the single top s and t channel production processes are revisited. Complete one-loop electroweak corrections are calculated within the SANC system. New is a study of the regularisation of the top-legs associated infrared divergences with aid of the complex mass of the top quark. A comparison of these electroweak corrections with those computed by the conventional method is presented both for top production and decays. Standard FORM and FORTRAN SANC modules are created. These modules are compiled into a package sanc_cc_v1.40, which may be downloaded from SANC project homepages. Many numerical results are presented at the partonic level with the aim to demonstrate the correct working of modules. These modules are intended to be used in Monte Carlo generators for single top production at the LHC. Where possible, we compare our results with those existing in the literature; in particular, a comprehensive comparison with results of the CompHEP system is given.

Measuring the charged particle multiplicity with ALICE

The charged particle multiplicity distribution is one of the first measurements that ALICE will be able to perform. The knowledge of this basic property at a new energy is needed to configure Monte Carlo generators correctly with the aim of understanding the background of other, especially rare, processes including new physics. It allows to study the scaling behaviour and to verify model predictions. The unfolding of the measurement is a non-trivial task due to the finite precision and acceptance of the detector. Solutions are based on chi2 minimization or iteratively using Bayes' theorem. Both approaches to unfold the spectrum are presented. Furthermore, the capabilities of the SPD fast OR trigger are shown that enable physics at very high multiplicities.

THE IMPACT OF LO, NLO AND NNLO FOR THE HIGGS SEARCHING AT $\sqrt{s} = 7$ TeV OF LHC

Most of current Monte Carlo studies on the Higgs searching are based on LO, or NLO calculation. However, in recent years, the next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) corrections have been computed for some physics process, and found that the cross section increases the kinematics changes. As the results, the analysis results could be impacted by these high order QCD corrections. We use standard Monte Carlo generator for LO, as well as MC@NLO for NLO and ResBos for NNLO at 7 TeV of LHC to evaluate this impact for physics channel of the Higgs, mass at 165 GeV, to WW, then W decay to lepton and neutrino as the final states. We found the signal rate could be effected by ratio of 1:2.6:3.4 for LO, NLO and NNLO using the same standard H→WW→lνlν searching analysis process.6

MC-TESTER v. 1.23: A universal tool for comparisons of Monte Carlo predictions for particle decays in high energy physics

Theoretical predictions in high energy physics are routinely provided in the form of Monte Carlo generators. Comparisons of predictions from different programs and/or different initialization set-ups are often necessary. MC-TESTER can be used for such tests of decays of intermediate states (particles or resonances) in a semi-automated way. Since 2002 new functionalities were introduced into the package. In particular, it now works with the HepMC event record, the standard for C++ programs. The complete set-up for benchmarking the interfaces, such as interface between τ-lepton production and decay, including QED bremsstrahlung effects is shown. The example is chosen to illustrate the new options introduced into the program. From the technical perspective, our paper documents software updates and supplements previous documentation. As in the past, our test consists of two steps. Distinct Monte Carlo programs are run separately; events with decays of a chosen particle are searched, and information is stored by MC-TESTER. Then, at the analysis step, information from a pair of runs may be compared and represented in the form of tables and plots. Updates introduced in the program up to version 1.24.4 are also documented. In particular, new configuration scripts or script to combine results from multitude of runs into single information file to be used in analysis step are explained. Program summary Program title: MC-TESTER, version 1.23 and version 1.24.4 Catalog identifier: ADSM_v2_0 Program summary URL: http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/summaries/ADSM_v2_0.html Program obtainable from: CPC Program Library, Queen's University, Belfast, N. Ireland Licensing provisions: Standard CPC licence, http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/licence/licence.html No. of lines in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 250 548 No. of bytes in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 4 290 610 Distribution format: tar.gz Programming language: C++, FORTRAN77 Tested and compiled with: gcc 3.4.6, 4.2.4 and 4.3.2 with g77/gfortran Computer: Tested on various platforms Operating system: Tested on operating systems: Linux SLC 4.6 and SLC 5, Fedora 8, Ubuntu 8.2 etc. Classification: 11.9 External routines: HepMC ( https://savannah.cern.ch/projects/hepmc/), PYTHIA8 ( http://home.thep.lu.se/~torbjorn/Pythia.html), LaTeX ( http://www.latex-project.org/) Catalog identifier of previous version: ADSM_v1_0 Journal reference of previous version: Comput. Phys. Comm. 157 (2004) 39 Does the new version supersede the previous version?: Yes Nature of problem: The decays of individual particles are well defined modules of a typical Monte Carlo program chain in high energy physics. A fast, semi-automatic way of comparing results from different programs is often desirable for the development of new programs, in order to check correctness of the installations or for discussion of uncertainties. Solution method: A typical HEP Monte Carlo program stores the generated events in event records such as HepMC, HEPEVT or PYJETS. MC-TESTER scans, event by event, the contents of the record and searches for the decays of the particle under study. The list of the found decay modes is successively incremented and histograms of all invariant masses which can be calculated from the momenta of the particle decay products are defined and filled. The outputs from the two runs of distinct programs can be later compared. A booklet of comparisons is created: for every decay channel, all histograms present in the two outputs are plotted and parameter quantifying shape difference is calculated. Its maximum over every decay channel is printed in the summary table. Reasons for new version: Interface for HepMC Event Record is introduced. Setup for benchmarking the interfaces, such as τ-lepton production and decay, including QED bremsstrahlung effects is introduced as well. This required significant changes in the algorithm. As a consequence, a new version of the code was introduced. Summary of revisions: • HepMC interface introduced • installation and configuration scripts added • visualization options added • introduced options useful for use of the program on distributed systems, such as the grid • comments regarding source code added Restrictions: Only the first 200 decay channels that were found will initialize histograms and if the multiplicity of decay products in a given channel was larger than 7, histograms will not be created for that channel. Additional comments: New features: HepMC interface, use of lists in definition of histograms and decay channels, filters for decay products or secondary decays to be omitted, bug fixing, extended flexibility in representation of program output, installation configuration scripts, merging multiple output files from separate generations. Running time: Varies substantially with the analyzed decay particle, but generally speed estimation of the old version remains valid. On a PC/Linux with 2.0 GHz processors MC-TESTER increases the run time of the τ-lepton Monte Carlo program TAUOLA by 4.0 seconds for every 100 000 analyzed events (generation itself takes 26 seconds). The analysis step takes 13 seconds; LATEX processing takes additionally 10 seconds. Generation step runs may be executed simultaneously on multiprocessor machines.

Measurements of forward proton production with incident protons and charged pions on nuclear targets at the CERN Proton Synchroton

Measurements of the double-differential proton production cross-section in the range of momentum 0.5 GeV/c < p < 8.0 GeV/c and angle 0.05 rad < \theta < 0.25 rad in collisions of charged pions and protons on beryllium, carbon, aluminium, copper, tin, tantalum and lead are presented. The data were taken with the large acceptance HARP detector in the T9 beam line of the CERN Proton Synchrotron. Incident particles were identified by an elaborate system of beam detectors and impinged on a target of 5 % of a nuclear interaction length. The tracking and identification of the produced particles was performed using the forward spectrometer of the HARP experiment. Results are obtained for the double-differential cross-sections mainly at four incident beam momenta (3 GeV/c, 5 GeV/c, 8 GeV/c and 12 GeV/c). Measurements are compared with predictions of the GEANT4 and MARS Monte Carlo generators.

A method for tuning parameters of Monte Carlo generators and its application to the determination of the unintegrated gluon density

A method for tuning parameters in Monte Carlo generators is described and applied to a specific case. The method works in the following way: each observable is generated several times using different values of the parameters to be tuned. The output is then approximated by some analytic form to describe the dependence of the observables on the parameters. This approximation is used to find the values of the parameter that give the best description of the experimental data. This results in significantly faster fitting compared to an approach in which the generator is called iteratively. As an application, we employ this method to fit the parameters of the unintegrated gluon density used in the CASCADE Monte Carlo generator, using inclusive deep inelastic data measured by the H1 Collaboration. We discuss the results of the fit, its limitations, and its strong points.